Sunday, October 02, 2005
Ricky Serna
and
Laura LaCour-Johnson
New Mexico Highland University
I have dropped the effort with respect to the situation in education in New Mexico. I will not make an effort to teach from a storefront what is not taught in the university classroom.
I am not sure that there is a way to frame the issues so that the conversation/effort does not get caught into some defensive mechanism. I did not wish to engage in a war. But engaging in a war is what the department and administration would do, because my success in teaching could not politically be tolerated. (Yes?)
It was one of the high points to talk with you, Ricky and Laura. Both of you have a sense of dedication and understanding.
Here is what I have thought about suggesting to you, privately. I suggest that you, and certainly not the president of the university, do NOT have any objective understanding of what you likely know subjectively to be true about what is going on in your computer science department. As someone who is outside looking in, I can say that you fired the wrong people and kept the wrong people - if the university's goals were as the president's inaugural address stated. Imagine if you have kept Dr Turner as chairman, understood that his objections to outsourcing the teaching of the freshman class were correct and proper objections - based on principles guided by standard university governance.
A renewal could now be taking place, transforming "mass" education into "universal" education.
Perhaps a hypothetical academic culture, one bringing true universal education, cannot be established in a world that elevates deception, elitism and obscurity. There is, I feel you know, a great damage that is done to the average person. The obscurity hides the fact that there is really no or little basis for elitism. The student can only legitimately honor the teacher by hyping up the hope that education might raise a personal standard of living. So learning is not for learning’s sake, it is for a right to make a living in an increasingly deceptive social system.
The difference between the teacher and the student is then an illusion. There is, then, no spiritual foundation to education.
The students know what the problem in mathematics education is, far better than do your current faculty. The current faculty feels that the students should already know a specific set of skills. It is not “their” responsibility to teach what has not been learned. And so the solution is to ignore the fact that students do not know these skills. The students are far wiser. They know that the entire notion of what skills are needed has been poorly developed.
Take a survey of the freshman class. Ask them about how the entire class sees the freshman program in mathematics and computer science. Like in a religion, there will be those who will offer to advertise the positive strengths of the department and faculty. But these are not going to be more that 20% - I estimate. These 20% are the only input you, Ricky, are getting feedback from. (Yes?)
The survey could be created by Dr Turner; or by someone who is an outside professional. But the survey itself should really allow students to express a diversity of opinions, such as whether or not mathematics beyond arithmetic is accessable to them.
Anyway, I have other things to do; and so do you.
My appreciation to you for the kindness you both did express. I found nothing else that was attractive about the university other than the facility itself.
Paul Prueitt