Thngs I miss from teaching

There is an enormous multitude of "things" I miss from teaching, the most obvious that comes to mind is searching through the library and digging through journals in search of that one perfect article for the next lesson. A simple series of examples and thoughts I could point out as precedence to grant some import to the obtuse or difficult design problem that the students had set before them. Something I would make them read and write short responses or questions to (3 of them actually, I got the idea from another professor from NCU - Charlotte) the articles, due prior to the next class, that had quite a bit to do with the exercise for the week. I would show up early to studio, a couple or few hours, and set down in the library or in the faculty lounge, reading whatever I could find, making my usual marks in the margins or jotting notes in my sketchbook.

Recently another friend has taken an adjunct position at the 'local' university I had taught at and had asked for a few suggestions for articles regarding the idea of "materiality", a rather wide topic in fact. I sorted through my folder of pdfs and sent a small selection of various degrees of difficulty. Sometimes I would bombard my students with Frampton, spin them with Graf or just be straight shooting with good ol' Ching. Either way, as the semester would go on the quality and level of responses would improve until they were more a joy to read and respond to then not.

Something that the profession duly lacks, at least locally, is the sort of discourse from reading assignments.; parsing of ideas, conversation regarding interpretation, mayhaps even anecdotal comparison.

Lately I have been reading CLOG (while letting copies of LOG pile up (what is up with these names?), but taking the train to the office is granting me an extra hour and half of reading time each day, that I wouldn't normally utilize, however my chance for discussion is slim. The audience isn't as interested as if they were in studio class. The profession is lacking the sort of discovery and wonder, its place taken by attempting to decipher the intent of those running the projects, or instead, attempting to get the project to run smoothly.

It is a chance lost, I fear.