Re: [Leica] OT:Photo grad school.

[Guy Bennett <gbennett@lainet.com>]

>Guy Bennett wrote:
>>> Though much of this activity is
>> without significance in the "real world," real world values are meaningless
>> in the academy: it is a self-validating system that generally does not
>> recognize non-academic achievement.
>
>Actually, my experience has been precisely the opposite - While I agree
>entirely that virtually no one in the 'real world' gives a rat's behind
>about your academic credentials once you get past your first job, I have
>found that some folks in academia will grant 'equivalence' to certain
>real-world accomplishments when hiring for positions in academia. At
>both Harvard Medical School, where I was briefly the Director of Media
>Affairs and had an academic appointment, and at MIT, where I teach, my
>credentials in the world of journalism are viewed by academics as being
>the equivalent of a doctorate in their world. The bottom line, I
>believe, is that at these particular institutions the academics have
>enough self-confidence to understand that they know what they know, and
>that I know what I know, and what I know is as much of value to students
>as what they know. (Does that make sense:-) )
>B. D.


It definitely does. And your case is a great example of how the "real
world" can and should exist within the rarified world of the academy. From
my experience, however, this is rather exceptional. I've been teaching the
humanities - languages and literature - at the university level for about
14 years now (first at UCLA and various community colleges in the L.A. area
and, for the last 2-3 years, at Otis College of Art and Design) and have
never seen anyone with less than a PhD given a teaching appointment in that
field. Even in community colleges, a full-time teacher in the humanities
with only a MA is becoming something of an anachronism.

Guy
- --
To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html