The world’s response to the situation in Haiti over the next few days will be critical in finding survivors, helping the injured, and providing food, water, and other supplies to a nation devastated by the disastrous earthquake which hit that country on January 12th.  We know that we will have students and faculty members deployed to Haiti as members of the Marines, Coast Guard, Navy, Army, Air Force, emergency and disaster rescue teams from states, counties, and municipalities, United Nations peacekeeping troops, and other agencies that have yet to be named in the press.  Please know that we will support you in your need to adjust your academic schedules based on your new assignment.  Thank you for serving our nation and the citizens of Haiti.  Godspeed!

Ed Strong was one of my grad school professors at Tulane.  On one of my early postings on this blog, I mentioned his name with a list of professors who I found notable for their teaching abilities when I was in college.  Ed found that posting and sent me a note.  We have remained in touch off and on through email and Facebook.  A few months ago, Ed sent me a link to one of the postings on his blog, Cabbages and Kings, and stated that I was one of his few Facebook friends who might be interested in the post.

I clicked on the link and found an interesting post where Dr. Strong shares his teaching philosophy.  He originally wrote the piece for his application for a tenure-track position at the university where he works as a full-time visiting professor.  You can read his post yourself or my synopsis below.  Either way, I think it is worth sharing.

Dr. Strong has a unique and varied teaching background.  His first teaching opportunities were with the Army where the teaching philosophy focused on the notion that only three teaching points could be absorbed and retained by students in an hour-long class.  From the Army, Dr. Strong went to INSEAD in Fontainebleau, France which uses a teaching style similar to that found at the Harvard Business School:  individual instructors are required to undertake extensive preparation, often in conjunction with other professors teaching the same or similar classes.  His time at Tulane, as he explains, brought a very different teaching experience.  Dr. Strong writes, “…I spent 34 years at Tulane, a school whose culture held that the instructor was – once the classroom doors were closed – answerable to no one for what went on in the classroom.”  From these experiences, Dr. Strong’s teaching philosophy has settled into a somewhat eclectic and, by his own admission, ever-evolving one.

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