Dr. Socrates P. Aristotle
Provost
Stellar University
Dear Dr. Aristotle,
As you know up until 1833 our our Ph.D. programs, in natural science, were labeled as a philosophy degree in "natural philosophy". It appears to me that we spent our efforts on teaching these students how to think theoretically and conceptually.
We seem to have changed our focus in all technical education from its theoretical form to a more deeply learned application form. This is a trend that seems to be prevalent in our sister institutions.
My team has observed that after "Sputnik" the number of doctorates per year has quadrupled in all disciplines and that since 1980 we awarded almost 50% of the doctorates given since 1900 (1.36 million) and ¾ were awarded after 1970 (1.04 million)
Despite these statistics, it appears that the nation's competitive position has worsened and the education system is in disarray. This confuses me when we have graduated 263,000 Ph.D. educators, more than any other discipline, at the same time the Public Schools are in accelerated decline.
As the head of your academic standards committee I'm concerned that we might be addressing the wrong issues in our curriculum. Can you give us some guidance?
Do you think we should concentrate on great thinking and less on the mechanics?
Regards,
Guilhelmi Ockham Ph.D.
Professor of Philosophy
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Comments: 2
"Do you think we should concentrate on great thinking and less on the mechanics?"
I offer a resounding "YES!" While we cannot abandon specialization--we equally cannot abandon generalization and interdisciplinary interests/knowledge (as we have done, quite thoroughly, over the past few decades).
We need educators who can adapt their practice to best suit the needs of students, as well as the broader economy (in the sense of cultural economies, as well as financial).
As for the PhDs in Education, not many of them teach in primary or secondary schools, I'd imagine. Most are either administrators or college/graduate faculty or professional researchers.