a few observations
I heard once an undergrad complaining a little about a class she was in, but in the process, saw the problem as lying in herself rather than the professor's teaching job. (Being somewhat familiar with the situation, I think this undergrad shouldn't have been so hard on herself, because my opinions of this profs teaching ability are not very high.) The undergrad remarked with this caveat concerning the prof, "S/he's brilliant and everything, but..." Then it struck me: many undergrads think professors know everything/are brilliant. Well, folks, some of them are not. (Where was I going with this? I can't remember. Oh yea.)
There's this sort of image in our culture of the quintessential professor--a brilliant, perhaps eccentric, genius. Having come this far down the road, I would agree that there is an element of madness; grad school inspires madness, but I digress. My point is about academic blogs. Every once in awhile I take a swing through a bunch, see what's going on in the world, and what strikes me every time is how exposed they all are. (Many realizing this, go to great lengths to preserve their anonymity.) What is exposed is nothing more than mere humanity and its stark reality. Yea, the life of the mind is great and all-consuming, but it's still full of bad days and spilled coffee (this is the university now, we left the milk cartons back in elementary school). It's kind of interesting to view this as an outsider and a sort of insider.
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These past couple of days have been noted by increased awareness of Elvis's presence. I'm thrilled that he's a strong, healthy little boy, moving and jiving. I'd rather have all this kicking than none. I'm not complaining, but sometimes I say to my little guy, "Dude! Chill out already!!!" because he never stops! I think these next few years are going to be...tiring. ;-)
Comments
Another problem with this undergrad's experience may be that many professors are brilliant and have NO idea how to teach effectively. I'm not sure who decided that a Ph.D. automatically renders one able to teach well, but it certainly isn't always the case. I'm glad that my Ph.D. program requirements include a pedagogy class and some TAing experience. I wonder how many other programs, including those in other disciplines, require some sort of education training, and how many just pass students through with the idea that eventually they'll figure out how to teach (or perhaps that they won't).
Posted by: Erica | 06.04.05 15:41
Comments
This is an excellent observation. I'm teaching for the first time this semester and I've been astounded by the automatic faith they place in everything that comes out of my mouth. It's just a different culture that you forget about while you're in grad school and constantly questioning. The first day I taught, I turned to the board to write something and heard 30 backpacks unzipping and notebooks flipping simultaneously and it was a bit surreal to realize that they were about to write down everything I said.
And I agree that not all profs are brilliant. I worked for a while as a GA in the Sponsored Programs office of our U and one of my duties was to proofread profs' grant proposals. The flawed writing in not only their drafts (and I mean flawed in argument, grammar, spelling, you name it) but what they submitted for final proposal, was appalling.
(Sorry, I think I digressed too! You commented on my blog a while back and I've been reading yours but hadn't commented; guess this one struck me!)
Posted by: michelle | 07.04.05 10:25
Comments
I agree with Erica. I've had my share of brilliant professors who didn't know how to teach. I've also had ones who seemed to hate students. One was a professor at Oxford, where I'm sure they have very high standards for hiring. So how and why did he get a job teaching there??
Posted by: Grace | 07.04.05 19:26