Last week was our last week of summer session classes. My class went well, but it went by incredibly fast. The 10 week quarter system is nothing compared to the five week summer session. I had fun teaching and the students were great. I think they had a fun time too. We had lively discussions and watched a couple movies and television shows.
The thing is that I'm not supposed to admit that teaching was fun and enjoyable. As far as our priorities go, teaching gets short shrift. After my students thanked me for a great class, I felt like they'd been hoodwinked. What they don't know is that teaching, at least at a major research university, just isn't a priority (for grad students or their professors). It really doesn't matter. Students and/or their parents shell out thousands of dollars to learn from professors that don't prioritize teaching. Professors will still get tenure and grad students will still get a Ph.D. even if they're bad teachers. I could have had a shitty class and bored my students to tears, and it wouldn't have mattered. I wouldn't have had to engage them in lively discussions or used television shows and movies to illustrate the material we'd been learning about.
It's not always the professors or grad students' fault that teaching gets short shrift. I suppose that's just how academia works. Drew and I recently watched a movie called Tenure, starring Luke Wilson, Gretchen Mol, and that bald guy from Anchorman. Wilson played an English professor trying to get tenure. He was an excellent teacher, but had a dismal publishing career. He was offered conditional tenure, but would have to take a year off from teaching to build up his publishing record. In the end, he declined the offer and ended up taking a job teaching high school students.
The main point of the movie did not seem too far from the truth. I have seen students enter grad school with the desire to teach, only to leave after a few years to pursue high school teaching. It's the dirty secret of academia. You think teaching matters, but it really doesn't. If you really want to teach, don't go to grad school. Research and getting published are valued, not teaching; it's the message we're constantly bombarded with.
Nevertheless, I still had a good summer session. It was fun and rewarding, and I think the students got a lot out of the class. And even though teaching is supposed to take a backseat to research, I don't regret the effort I put into it.
The thing is that I'm not supposed to admit that teaching was fun and enjoyable. As far as our priorities go, teaching gets short shrift. After my students thanked me for a great class, I felt like they'd been hoodwinked. What they don't know is that teaching, at least at a major research university, just isn't a priority (for grad students or their professors). It really doesn't matter. Students and/or their parents shell out thousands of dollars to learn from professors that don't prioritize teaching. Professors will still get tenure and grad students will still get a Ph.D. even if they're bad teachers. I could have had a shitty class and bored my students to tears, and it wouldn't have mattered. I wouldn't have had to engage them in lively discussions or used television shows and movies to illustrate the material we'd been learning about.
It's not always the professors or grad students' fault that teaching gets short shrift. I suppose that's just how academia works. Drew and I recently watched a movie called Tenure, starring Luke Wilson, Gretchen Mol, and that bald guy from Anchorman. Wilson played an English professor trying to get tenure. He was an excellent teacher, but had a dismal publishing career. He was offered conditional tenure, but would have to take a year off from teaching to build up his publishing record. In the end, he declined the offer and ended up taking a job teaching high school students.
The main point of the movie did not seem too far from the truth. I have seen students enter grad school with the desire to teach, only to leave after a few years to pursue high school teaching. It's the dirty secret of academia. You think teaching matters, but it really doesn't. If you really want to teach, don't go to grad school. Research and getting published are valued, not teaching; it's the message we're constantly bombarded with.
Nevertheless, I still had a good summer session. It was fun and rewarding, and I think the students got a lot out of the class. And even though teaching is supposed to take a backseat to research, I don't regret the effort I put into it.
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