Teaching Which Ignores The Realities

Kids Go To School And College And Get Through, But They Don't Seem To Really Care About Using Their Minds. School Doesn't Have The Kind Of Long Term Positive Impact That It Should.

Any Profession Should Have Norms Around The Issue You Raise. And, In The Words Of The Great Economic Thinker Albert Hirschman, We All Owe A Measure Of Loyalty To Professional Norms. But When The Norms Seem Unhelpful Or Unproductive, One Needs To Speak Up - To Activate Voice. And In The Extreme, If The Profession And One's Colleagues Seem Estranged From A Thoughtfully Selected Course Of Action, You Need To Consider The Possibility Of Exit. Of Course, If You Knowingly Violate Norms Or Laws, You Need To Be Prepared To Face The Consequences - Or To Lead A Revolution!

If You Are Not Prepared To Resign Or Be Fired For What You Believe In, Then You Are Not A Worker, Let Alone A Professional. You Are A Slave.

A Good Person Is One Who Follows The Ten Commandments And The Golden Rule. There Is Plenty Of Precedent In History To Guide Us And We Probably Evolved To Be Sensitive To Bible-golden Rule Situations. But The Dilemmas Faced By A Worker - A Journalist, An Architect, An Auditor - Or By A Citizen (what Position To Take On Stem Cell Research, Whether To Run For Office, What Is The Proper Balance Between Taxation And Social Nets) - Are Not Questions That Can Be Answered By Traditional Texts Or Precedents.

No Academic Ever Expects To Be Taken Seriously By More Than Three Other People, Because Really, We Write For Three People In Our Field.