December 8, 2000

A Guide to Good Teaching: Be Slow and Inefficient

By MICHAEL RANDALL

I have the rather dubious honor of writing as a representative of a dying breed, like an Atlantic salmon, a spotted owl, or a cod. Soon distance learning will have rendered the professor obsolete, and translation devices will have made language courses redundant. In fact, English will probably be the world's only language, and modern American popular culture will have completely washed away the historical past. Appreciation of literature will enjoy the same nostalgic status as book or LP