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Colleges and universities should require all faculty to spend time working outside the academic world in professions relevant to the courses they teach.

Education should be an all encompassing venture; its success should be felt in both the classrooms, and the society. Academics have an important role in making this the case; they should together with their lecturing spend some time outside their academic niche.

Firstly, such actions make academics more effective and incisive in their classrooms. Academic is seen as idealistic, and students find it difficult to apply what they learn at colleges in the actual world. Thus, an educator having outside classroom experience is an added advantage; it would make lectures more pragmatic and incisive. Students would surely benefit from classes that discuss at length on practical application of ideas and concepts rather than utopian theories which do not dovetail with real world scenarios. For instance, an Engineering Professor with reallife experience from working on a Power plant would be more effective in teaching a class on power plant engineering than one without such experience.

Together with improving their teaching skills, they also by coming out of their comfort zones have a positve impact on the society. Academics should have an edifying impact on society, it ideas and concepts should be able to improve the thinking and lives of humans. Educators are invovled in a cornucopia of research and experiments: science and social science. And it would be absurd for academicians to keep such knowledge to the walls of a University; by spending time in society these noble concepts can be used to bolster the various aspect of society. For example, a sociologist taking a break from teaching and then championing a cause for improve social welfare programs for Americans would help improve the cause of indigent citizens.

Although contrarians to this assertion state that academics should eschew from spending time off teaching, citing points like: decline in academic research and decline of scholarship in schools as the result of such actions, they fail to see the added benefits that such actions would bring to  academic scholarship; there is an exigent need for solution to real life problems, and it is from academics that posses knowledge on the pragmatic problems of society that solution to these conundrums would emerge.

In summary, classroom activities would become more expansive and academics would have a relevant effect on society by spending time outside their classrooms. If for anything there is no harm spending time to have a look on how erudition can affect lives outside the classroom.