Higher education is more about research than reading, writing and arithmetic.
Jonathan Zimmerman, a professor at New York University writes in the Christian Science Monitor that colleges and universities put little emphasis is on teaching.
He cites the work of James Fairweather that shows "professors who spend more time on instruction-related activities make lower salaries. The more time you devote to research, meanwhile, the more money you earn. These numbers hold constant across different types of institutions, from so-called 'Research-One' universities to liberal arts colleges."
Zimmerman goes on to say that teaching won't help a professor get tenure. "Indeed, young professors are often warned that a strong commitment to the classroom might actually hurt their chances for promotion. …'I could be better,' one young professor confessed, 'but if I spent my time improving, I wouldn't get tenure.'"
The NYU professor says that until our institutions of higher education develop a system "to judge - or to reward - our work in the classroom" the quality of teaching in academia will not improve.
