Lack of Specialization Within Academia

Many people complain that today's higher education is far too overspecialized to make it worthwhile, and in a sense this is true. Take a look at most undergraduate college websites, and you're likely to see a list of extremely specific majors available at the school. In another sense, however, a lack of specialization is greatly crippling today's universities.

In almost any circumstance today, in order to get a good research position at a university, you must teach. Similarly, though to a lesser extent, the better teaching jobs tend to require some sort of research. But why should this be so? The skills of creating new knowledge and of communicating that knowledge to students in a classroom setting are very distinct. Not only might an individual be far better at one than the other, but an individual may also only want to base his career around one or the other. If the two professions of teaching and research weren't so inextricably linked, then we might have teachers who are not dedicated researchers enter the profession and raise standards everywhere, and vice versa for researchers. Dear reader, can you explain this mysterious requirement?