Academia, Awake!

In those earlier schools, academies of ancient Greece, it was commonstance, in fact part of the system, for teachers to bugger their students. And there's the rub! Favoritism and misuse of power are ingrained in the system at subliminal levels. The difference between an A or C grade is often how well students and teachers get along, with the teacher as ultimate judge and jury and executionner. This compromised loyalty has unfortunate side effects.

Think of MFA students trained in the late fifties, ready to storm the world with a thorough grounding in abstract expressionism, to find Pop Art had made them redundant. Such misplaced certitudes... Students, if good, will have an intuitive sense of the new; their work should differ from what we know. Teachers unfortunately have vested interests to defend. Sometimes by creating disciples. It's a matter of survival... Slippery.

Nothing wrong with a great relationship. But what about different personality types? There's this tribal thing, we favor our own people. Grades are important ; they represent levels of ability fairly accurately, in normal times. But even the best student can have a bad turn with a hostile teacher with an opposing ideology . We should be more fair.

A number of years teaching and complacency sets in; hundreds of students come and go. Quality of life, respectability, security, maintenance of the status quos assume a higher status than nurturing a new generation. As for students who hold different, opposite or radical point of view... To hell with them! Really!

The new and different, the edge of discovery are always disturbing. Facing the unknown (which can be harmful), our survival must take priority. Still, let's keep an eye out for the unexpected; let a hundred flowers bloom, a hundred ways of thought flourish! There's a fine balance to chaos and order, sometimes overweighed on one side, sometimes the other. We should be more alert.

Feb. 20, 1995

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