What of the curriculum? In reply, the exact answer from the AdminProfs, “our students get jobs.” One may want to characterize such a reply as replacement for knowing the what & why of a curriculum, we may want to hold patience, get to know the students and their goals, assess the currents and world of our multi-discipline—gather time and detail if we still indulge in such things. And ask in reply, “but do they get the jobs they desire—the careers, vocations, direction worthy of four years full-time, and the benefit learning of/from your pedagogical skill refined over decades in a job assured for life?”
The first outfit put a team on the field. This team could play an array of other teams and win—they could work together and respond to strong opponents. They had special teams that could deliver. They had first and second string that could deliver. They won frequently. The second let the team off the bus at the stadium. Some ran up and down the stands while others ran this way and that around the field. Some horsed around in concessions or played hide and seek in the locker rooms. Once in a while one of them made it into the end zone. The coaching staff stayed out of their way and didn’t bring harm, nor did they field a team. In the third case, those assigned with coaching and team management stood at the door of the bus and knee-capped the players as they exited. The players there on the parking lot asphalt rolling around and looking at the empty sky.
“Only through disengagement can you gain the space—the proper perspective—to truly intervene. If you directly intervene, you never act in empty space.” — Slavoj Žižek