Internship: In order to understand the concept of internship as it is perceived, one might look at the roots of the word in today's language. Internship comes from the Latin word internus meaning inward and the suffix ship from Old English as a way to show a state of being or ownership. So internship at its most basic level means a state of inward being/thinking. In a related search of terms, mentorship can be divided into the Greek word mentor meaning a trusted teacher or advisor and with the suffix ship. Therefore mentorship becomes an ownership to a trusted teacher or advisor. This little study of the roots of words shows the contradiction in the way we look at architectural internship in recent years.
Most students in architectural schools are not taught the required topics needed to be a professional architect, nor should they be. However, I am willing to say that students do not receive the necessary training in today's internship as well. A three year time period based on the 17 core issues brought up by IDP is only half of the knowledge really necessary to become a successful architect. What about Client Relationships, Government Permitting, and while code research is taught, where is the teaching of universal design? The three years of internship are supposed to be a time of learning and personal development, but in recent years it not only has taken more than three years, it has also turned into a time students dread and some students completely skip the process and study a different form a of design.
On the other hand, past generations of architects have had a mentorship process in effect. William LeBaron Jenney taught Louis Sullivan who taught Frank Lloyd Wright who taught E. Fay Jones and Edgar Tafel. This list is just one example of how architecture is a passed down art from one great designer to another potential designer. This is the reason architecture schools educate their students using a studio model, but why do we stop using this tried and true method of instruction when it comes to preparing a designer to become a professional? Would a student feel more obligated to become an architect if he/she was taken under the wing of a professional and guided through all aspects of architecture in a timely fashion set forth by the architect/mentor? Why do all other professions have a mentor figure involved in the apprenticeship of a new professional, yet architecture, an ever changing element, uses a strict and impersonal guide to train their young professionals with a "mentor" just signing off on criteria as it is completed?
The old adage, "Give a man a fish and he eats for a day, teach a man to fish and he shall never go hungry," really sums up the need for internship/mentorship in architecture. It is always easier to train a student how to pass his/her ARE exams, but to educate said student to be a professional, successful and knowledgeable architect is the challenge we should really be tackling.