Ticking Off Teacher
Sir: "To Profess with a Passion" [May 6] dissects the heart of the matter. I was beginning to think that no one but students realized the disappointment, boredom and frustration caused by the disinterested and incompetent teachers we are faced with daily. These teachers rarely see our tests, do not prepare a lecture in advance, refuse to be bothered answering a student's question (and too often cannot answer it anyway), and have no interest in whether or not the students are actually learning. As a result, the saving and sacrificing to finance a college education often seems worthless.
JOSEPH J, CURCI St. Joseph's College Philadelphia
Sir: Thank you very much for including me in your group of teachers. But might I make two further points? 1) I don't believe that there is any conflict between research and teaching. Indeed, there is none of the latter worth anything unless the former continues to flourish. 2) I can't really believe that I ever said that about buildings saying "hello." Despite my admiration for them, no building has ever actually spoken to me. I should be seriously unnerved if one did.
VINCENT SCULLY Professor of the History of Art Yale University New Haven, Conn.
Sir: In the condensation of my views on teaching, I was quoted as not believing in "a libidinous relationship [between teacher and student] such as they have at Sarah Lawrence." I was discussing not sex mores, but teaching ethos. I expressed my belief that it is better for teaching to be problem-centered than, as at Sarah Lawrence, person-centered, and that the basic tie between teacher and student should therefore be intellectual, not libidinal. The discussion focused on how to encourage the love of learning, not on the learning of love. Sarah Lawrence, please excuse!
CARL E. SCHORSKE Professor of History University of California Berkeley
Amendments to the Law
Sir: I am certain that others occupied with defending the indigent join me in commending TIME for its fine coverage of the confessions problem [April 29]. Most criminal convictions in this country are based on confessions obtained from persons with limited education. No educated person would sign a contract disposing of his property without consulting a lawyer; yet hundreds of suspects daily sign away their lives or liberty in confessions, unaware of their right to do otherwise. The educated and wealthy are thus granted an advantage over the ignorant and poor that makes a mockery of the American ideal of equality before the law.
BENNETT G. HORNSTEIN A ssistant Public Defender Omaha