Hello (to a blast from a certain past)
Let me call you John Galt. It is more of an honourable Idea than a name.
It has always been my pleasure interacting with you, taking-in your design criticisms as a silent observer, and gaining the benefit of your insights on design/thesis. Hence I speak to you more in the manner that a junior would speak to his senior, or as one would to a class-mate, rather than speak as some one who is equally fed-up of the farce.
I believe You have studied under teachers who have always kept high academic standards as a measure of an institution, and quality and depth of content as a measure of an academic endeavour/ work Even if design briefs of your time have been simplistic/ mundane/banal in your opinion, the work ethic of a class during your time had never been a contentious issue. Till some years back, we did not have the knowledge resources available these days, and that too is rapidly getting updated/ revised/ re-examined. You were not that lucky, yet you found it in you to seek knowledge that would matter to you.
You say that not too long ago, Standards and Criteria were such that if one did not have it in their work, one did not make the cut.Plain,Simple,Surgical. Therefore Effective. (Some have called it victimisation by the system,increasing clouts and pressures to push students through etc. But I am glad you disagree. It is true when you say that your times too have had issues of political clout, external interference, temperament, impossible work loads etc.).
Nowadays we see that rather than having students measure up, faculty is being asked to water down their standards/ reduce intensity of their instruction and work. I believe this points to a problem. An evident and visible issue that every college should wake up to, and fast. Present day dips in academic standards demand a certain rigour to be instilled and inculcated, so that a graduate's forays are not speculative walks in the park.
So, if not in the classroom, where does a student get the necessary grounding and the world-view so necessary today, in order to not become a caricature called "Architect"? (In practice...? hardly a convincing answer, given the myopia.)
You say that it is time to call the bluff on this matter. But then, Faculty can only do so much as what the "system" will allow. But being questioned for doing that and being asked to change instead, goes against the train of thoughts of all of us who believe in Academia being the Change we seek. Is it then a wonder that you espouse self- preservation and therefore move out from being within such systems?
Of course all this can be dismissed as the ramblings of someone caught in a time-warp. Perhaps you don't ramble because you think it things are not going to be different.
Inshaallah Academia will again become that refreshing fount of intellectual and creative ferment that it was till one point not too long ago.
Let me call you John Galt. It is more of an honourable Idea than a name.
It has always been my pleasure interacting with you, taking-in your design criticisms as a silent observer, and gaining the benefit of your insights on design/thesis. Hence I speak to you more in the manner that a junior would speak to his senior, or as one would to a class-mate, rather than speak as some one who is equally fed-up of the farce.
I believe You have studied under teachers who have always kept high academic standards as a measure of an institution, and quality and depth of content as a measure of an academic endeavour/ work Even if design briefs of your time have been simplistic/ mundane/banal in your opinion, the work ethic of a class during your time had never been a contentious issue. Till some years back, we did not have the knowledge resources available these days, and that too is rapidly getting updated/ revised/ re-examined. You were not that lucky, yet you found it in you to seek knowledge that would matter to you.
You say that not too long ago, Standards and Criteria were such that if one did not have it in their work, one did not make the cut.Plain,Simple,Surgical. Therefore Effective. (Some have called it victimisation by the system,increasing clouts and pressures to push students through etc. But I am glad you disagree. It is true when you say that your times too have had issues of political clout, external interference, temperament, impossible work loads etc.).
Nowadays we see that rather than having students measure up, faculty is being asked to water down their standards/ reduce intensity of their instruction and work. I believe this points to a problem. An evident and visible issue that every college should wake up to, and fast. Present day dips in academic standards demand a certain rigour to be instilled and inculcated, so that a graduate's forays are not speculative walks in the park.
So, if not in the classroom, where does a student get the necessary grounding and the world-view so necessary today, in order to not become a caricature called "Architect"? (In practice...? hardly a convincing answer, given the myopia.)
You say that it is time to call the bluff on this matter. But then, Faculty can only do so much as what the "system" will allow. But being questioned for doing that and being asked to change instead, goes against the train of thoughts of all of us who believe in Academia being the Change we seek. Is it then a wonder that you espouse self- preservation and therefore move out from being within such systems?
Of course all this can be dismissed as the ramblings of someone caught in a time-warp. Perhaps you don't ramble because you think it things are not going to be different.
Inshaallah Academia will again become that refreshing fount of intellectual and creative ferment that it was till one point not too long ago.
I like your blog!! simple but nice!
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