Leave Practitioning to the Practitioners

Over the years it has been assumed (and corroborated by college professors) that professors make a significant contribution to business through their consulting and that, in turn, the consulting contributes to the experience of the educator and therefore to his competence in the classroom. There is little argument about the benefit of consulting that allows an educator the opportunity to meaningfully, beyond the dog-work level, involve competent students in real-world learning experiences; however, all too frequently this is not the case. Seldom, if ever, has this hypothesis been challenged by the academic community. It has become somewhat of a “sacred cow.” Perhaps it is time to examine this position a bit more objectively.