"...a fabulously informative and stimulating workshop. ...The controversy sparked by Andrew was good, but most of all the "real teaching" workshops captured the essence of what it is we all love to do and the scope of workshops and speakers was inspiring. Lucille was of course the perfect cap on it all."
Mary Scott
Academy of Art College

"It was such an informative conference and allowed excellent opportunities to interact with fellow educators. I am proud to have been a part of the conference."
Susan Merritt
San Diego State University

"Thought provoking, interesting, enlightening, fun."
Eric Chimenti
Chapman University

"It was a great conference and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I hope these kind of gatherings will continue. When I started teaching in the late sixties there wasnÕt much available if help or guidance was needed. So I just winged it."
Larry Brady
California State University, Long Beach and Chapman University

"Personally, for me it was:
- great to see colleagues/friends from different parts of the country;
- great to have an opportunity to present and share projects that we are all working on in our classrooms;
- I really enjoyed the breakout sessions, in particular the curriculum one and the one with Meredith, Lucille & Petrula.
- and to just share information, stories, anecdotes, etc. with colleagues who are also teaching/designing/& juggling like we all seem to be doing.
- Candice: I was so deeply impressed with the work you are doing in your community; thank you so much for sharing that with those of us who have never seen it. Keep on going!"
Frank Baseman
Philadelphia University

"It was everything I ever hoped for: meaningful, inspiring, smart, and really really warm in the best way."
Gail Swanlund
California Institute of the Arts

"I am fairly new to the full-time teaching biz, and starting to evaluate how I am as a teacher of design, not a designer who teaches. This conference was a great help in revealing directions and resources available to me. The price was wonderful - it made going much less of a hardship to us poor academics. Wim DeWit and Meredith Davis were much appreciated by me. I enjoyed/valued their general sessions. For the breakouts, the standout was Jacques Giard. Excellent content, and excellent presentation. I could have listened to him for another hour! I found Susan Merritt's "didactic value of a five-pointed star" fascinating, and will probably try to incorporate something like it in my instruction. The professional practice seminar was very good - a very involved crowd and bright presenters. Michael, Eric and Jack from North Texas University did a good job, and their information really made me want to dedicate myself to learning more about the craft of design education."
Steve Cox
Orange Coast College

"My response to SOT is essentially positive; really encouraging and a long time coming: an actual space made for graphic design educators to gather together. The topics were pertinent and interesting, sorry that conferees couldn't go to more than 3 of the breakout groups. I always enjoy Lorraine's lectures even though they are her own constructions of the world as she narrowly but interestingly edits it politically. Even though it was a pity that Andrew read his writing, it still set a tone of questioning what a designer is or could be. Lucille's concluding lecture was on an inspiring good note of the pedagogical connection with students which is really the point. I was a bit put off that it was called Schools of Thoughts, yet all of the main speakers (except Wim) come from the same Cranbrook egg. Maybe it should have been called Thoughts from One School. Some of the breakout groups were people dealing with the nitty-gritty, which attempted to offset this. "Sorry to say, I was disappointed in the SOT graphics."
P. Lyn Middleton
Art Institute of California

Strictly Personal Observations of the [Schools of Thoughts] Conference:

Andrew Blauvelt
Clearly a real scholar, this event suffered as the speaker needed to read the text, which in itself was based in great part on books most of us appeared not to have read. In hindsight, I think he could have made a much better connection with the audience by abandoning his text, and more personally sharing his obvious interest in the subject.

Wim de Witt
The Getty seems to have an army of brilliant scholars, and this promised to be a surprising pleasure. But, it was not to be. Listing the facts of the Bauhaus to this audience, without even a trace of emotion or apparent feeling for how important this subject is for many of us, the presentation failed to present any of the wonder of the Bauhaus.

Practical Training/Professional Practice Breakout Session
A popular session, a diverse range of interesting presentations, including a very hopeful presentation on sponsor projects by Cal State Long Beach, Terry Stones' insights on professional practice for design students on the 'fringe', and a very real-world program for fast-track design education by Tony Colombini.

Fundamentals Breakout Session
Three terrific teaching samples, including Susan Merritt/San Diego City College's star project, Debra Satterfield's team project structure, and Christina de Almeida's truly interesting presentation on process books.

Lorraine Wild, Graphic Design Her-story
Having heard many presentations from Lorraine in the past, I was fearful this might not be interesting. But I have to admit, this woman is a genius. Graphic Design Education History as farce. How does she do it? Bravo! The simplification of the entire education history down to the Bauhaus and Cranbrook. Ulm School? Gone! Basel? Gone! Yale? Gone! This was a very creative idea, however, Lorraine herself appeared to lose her confidence. Seemingly feeling the need to defend the school, she explained that she 'personally' caught David Carson apparently spying at Cranbrook, and I quote "he wasn't the only one!" Too bad, it was a great bit.
I think Lorraine inadvertently provided an insight into education today, and to this conference, with her loving acknowledgement of her 'mafia'.

Meredith Davis
A real contrast, a presentation that seemed to touch issues affecting many of us in the rooms, in very different types of institutions. Very interesting was her acknowledgement of the problem that many new instructors are just out of grad school, and have no real world experience. She raised long term issues and questions that only a longer time slot could do justice to. It is easy to see why she is so highly regarded.

Final Breakout: Issues in Education
Archie Boston, Denise Weyhrich, Leslie Haynes, Diane Tarter, Gunnar Swanson A very interesting wrap-up, with good insights on setting up new programs, and on the theoretical idea of a liberal arts graphic design degree. Denise captured the moment, I think, by wistfully regretting that the conversation had to end.

Conclusion

1
A poll would be worthwhile to see how many of these participants are part-time, or work in some professional capacity, and how much interest there is in this aspect of design education. Much of the professional community, only part of which are instructors, was not represented, and could be pulled into such an event if there was interest.
2
Personally, I take obvious pleasure in teasing the heavy representation of Cranbrook/Cal Arts, from Andrew Blauvelt through Lucille Tenazas. But, truth be told, a very professional effort was made to assemble these event speakers, and these individuals were chosen as the best. Perhaps these people do know more than the rest of us.
3
In closing, many thanks, and sincere appreciation, to Petrula, Archie, Denise, Louise, Denise, UCLA Extension, Mead Westvaco and all others directly involved. A wonderful event. In that success at these in no way guarantees a future, I can only be hopeful that these will continue.

John Clark
Otis Institute of Art and Design