<p>Isn’t the issue of teaching experience or ability important? I think that is dangerous to equate knowledge and non-academic experience with the ability to teach. The example of Bill Gates illustrates that point. While his professional success is unequaled, no ones knows if he would be able to share his knowledge with great success. Not to mention that the business cycles might be rather fickle: at one point in time Enron’s Ken Lay, Worldcom’s Ebbers, and Tyco’s Koslowski would have been the darlings at any business school. </p>
<p>There are lots of brilliant people who have rudimentary social social skills and are not good candidates for teaching positions. Isn’t one of the recurrent comments in many schools that TAs’ who cover math and sciences do not seem to master spoken English and see teaching as a nuisance? </p>
<p>Viewing it from different angle, it seems pretty degrading to the tenured professors to hear that some might even prefer lectures by inexperienced and poorly trained TAs over the “real” thing. So much for the art of teaching!</p>