I have no pieces of paper saying that I have completed
any college courses so in their eyes I am unqualified to teach. I
sometimes wish I lived in the USA as you seem to have free minds
as to qualifications
Unfortunately, James, this is increasingly not the case, especially
in so-called “institutions of higher learning.” My husband is a
college professor, and I have been witness, through him, to a
distressing cascade of changes in the academic environment.
Apparently, there has been a nationwide move to dismiss college
faculty who have not attained the “terminal degree” in their field,
or to put them on a sort of probation until they earn this degree.
At our local college, the experience and talent of many instructors
and professorshas been completely ignored, and some have been forced
to resign or to give up chairmanships that they have held for years.
This attrition is occurring in many colleges, and many gifted and
well-loved mentors are being lost.
So, even though you could probably make Faberge bawl with jealousy
at your amazing craftsmanship, and even though you could be a
wonderful teacher and inspire generations of future jewelers, there
probably wouldn’t be much chance of you getting a tenured position,
even in the art department of our teeny little liberal-arts college.
What a shame, in every sense.
Sincerely,
Jessee Smith
www.silverspotstudio.com
Cincinnati, Ohio