{ Didn't She Get the Memo? }

I guess she just couldn't stay away. A few months ago, I posted about a contest Matel hosted where fans could vote on Barbie's next career, and at the time Computer Engineer won out over Architect... but I guess she wasn't feelin' the whole computer crowd. While normally I find it awesome to have little girls aspire to be / do something other than being a model (or skank) or living off her rich husband, I don't think Barbie made the right career move by pursuing architecture. This is one of the worst times to enter this job market... while things are pointing to an economic upturn, still more of my friends (with architecture degrees) are unemployed than not, and have even gone back to school to avoid this dire time.  Plus what's up with all the color? I don't think Barbie, contrary to what the article says about working with architects, has ever visited a firm. It's pretty rare to find an architect with so much color in her wardrobe... but at least they got the thick rimmed glasses right.  {via}

Graduate Education is the Detroit of Higher Learning?

First off, I do like to hate on Detroit ... I mean it is Detroit. But I noticed this article via Mr. Finnerty's gtalk status (thanks btw), titled The End of the University as We Know It.

But after reading this article... I did find a few upsetting points, and I had a lover-ly discussion with my friend Eric on it...
magiceggo: I'm not sure how I feel about this article.

me: ha!

really?

which?

magiceggo: Well, the one ur writing ur blog on about restructuring universities

me: ahhh

yeah

5:24 PM i feel something has to be said about it

magiceggo: His argument might hold water for the social sciences

me: but i'm not entirely sure what

magiceggo: However, in my department this is not how research is conducted.

We are fairly specialized, but collaborations are more frequent in the sciences than in say religion.

5:25 PM me: tru

but not so much in architecture

which is bizarre because it is in the prof

5:26 PM magiceggo: It's highly authoritarian.

I don't like many of his points, aside from maybe point 5.

5:27 PM Create departments that feature a single "theme." So, we'll have a "drug" theme and put MY department in there with philosophers, pharmacists, bioethicists, and animal experimentalists.

That would be, in short, a pedagogical nightmare.

me: and essentially that's the only reason architects go to grad school is to specilize in x (be it theory, a type of contrustion, a form of representation) and what for? its nothing that i couldn't learn on my own, I guess I do have more authority and respect about that topic with that degree, but pretty much all i can do then is teach ?

ha!

yeah i can see your agrument

5:28 PM magiceggo: Well, that's point number five, which I agree with, that graduate students should be trained for more jobs than just teach.

Yes, train grad students for multiple careers. Their training should be such that you could ask them, "What are your plans for hwen you graduate?" And they reply, "i can do x, y, z, all based on their training."

5:31 PM me: 3. seems a little idealistic to me

5:32 PM i mean potentially its a great idea to collaborate between universities, but then what merit does one university have over the other?

magiceggo: idk

me: idk?

what does that mean?

magiceggo: i dont know

5:33 PM good question i mean