Contingent Education?: How Colleges Are Wasting Our Money and Failing Our Kids
Some years ago, at a college where Claudia was teaching a nonfiction writing course, she found herself working without an assigned office space. All college teachers require a dedicated corner where they can confer with their students. And Claudia's specialty--journalism training--is particularly dependent on professor-student interactions. Claudia’s students bring her their tentative first attempts at reporting. She must show them where they’ve gone right or wrong and gently steer them onto a successful path. Given the vulnerability of young writers, all of this is best done delicately, and in private. “I have no office space for meeting my students--what can we do about this?” Claudia inquired of the administrator who ran her department.“There’s no space left this term,” the administrator declared dismissively, annoyed. “The regular faculty have taken everything.” [More]