As part of my job here, I have to attend dinners where I learn about the college and stuff. Honestly, it is lame as fuck. I got into academia b/c I want to be left the fuck alone. I want to read my books, write my research, and teach my classes. Everyone else can fuck the fuck off. But, nonetheless: I must attend these dinners (O rank and tenure committee how I loathe thee: You're like my new Jesus, watching over me and passing judgment. You actually fit nicely into my Catholic pantheon.....).
The WORST part of these dinners is swallowing all the shit getting shoveled. At the last dinner, we discussed "teaching as vocation." First, I hate*hate*HATE when we have to discuss things like a "calling" and "teaching speaks to us" and generally get all huggy. Again, even though I'm at a liberal arts school, I nonetheless got into this job b/c I'm an empiricist and a rationalist. I hate hugging my family and friends. I don't want to sit around and be emotional and introspective with my colleagues.
But the worst bit: the woman who's been here a few years and dropped this little turd gem in the room:
"I learn more from them than they learn from me."
Can I repeat myself? I hate*hate*HATE this kind of hippie crap. It's all over education. (The grad school version is: "You'll learn more from your colleagues than your professors." If true, this speaks more to the negligence of faculty at most schools rather than to the brilliance of grad students btw.) And her shining example of how smart our students are? One of them used Google to define what a cubit is, a task this woman claimed she could not accomplish.
Fuck me in the ass and call me Susie Jo.
If this woman can't work google, how the fuck does she get to WORK everyone morning?
What bothers me is that I know, you know, they know it's all a performance - an artifice and an affect. I hate it. I'd love to talk about real teaching issues: should we bend our pedagogy to help students success, or expect them to be adults and rise to the occasion? How do we handle problems - like kids not reading? How do we make them *write better*? What kinds of writing are we looking for? Do we care about skills, content, or both? These are worth conversations to have. This weird stroke fest .... ugh.
Otherwise, life is good. I hung out with some non-college based folk I met last night, had some home brewed beers. The wife gets here Tuesday.
(Yes, that means we won't be leaving the house that afternoon. Nor will I be here much next week. I'll be preoccupied, hands full, and any other double entendres you care to insert [hehehe....I said insert...]).
The WORST part of these dinners is swallowing all the shit getting shoveled. At the last dinner, we discussed "teaching as vocation." First, I hate*hate*HATE when we have to discuss things like a "calling" and "teaching speaks to us" and generally get all huggy. Again, even though I'm at a liberal arts school, I nonetheless got into this job b/c I'm an empiricist and a rationalist. I hate hugging my family and friends. I don't want to sit around and be emotional and introspective with my colleagues.
But the worst bit: the woman who's been here a few years and dropped this little turd gem in the room:
"I learn more from them than they learn from me."
Can I repeat myself? I hate*hate*HATE this kind of hippie crap. It's all over education. (The grad school version is: "You'll learn more from your colleagues than your professors." If true, this speaks more to the negligence of faculty at most schools rather than to the brilliance of grad students btw.) And her shining example of how smart our students are? One of them used Google to define what a cubit is, a task this woman claimed she could not accomplish.
Fuck me in the ass and call me Susie Jo.
If this woman can't work google, how the fuck does she get to WORK everyone morning?
What bothers me is that I know, you know, they know it's all a performance - an artifice and an affect. I hate it. I'd love to talk about real teaching issues: should we bend our pedagogy to help students success, or expect them to be adults and rise to the occasion? How do we handle problems - like kids not reading? How do we make them *write better*? What kinds of writing are we looking for? Do we care about skills, content, or both? These are worth conversations to have. This weird stroke fest .... ugh.
Otherwise, life is good. I hung out with some non-college based folk I met last night, had some home brewed beers. The wife gets here Tuesday.
(Yes, that means we won't be leaving the house that afternoon. Nor will I be here much next week. I'll be preoccupied, hands full, and any other double entendres you care to insert [hehehe....I said insert...]).
VIEW 8 of 8 COMMENTS
madscience:
WTF??? I have never been shoveled such shit, thank god. I guess that's a difference between our fields?? And our schools. Good god. 
And I hate to tell you . . . but I have had conversations about how to help students succeed, and how to help them write better, etc. Some of those conversations are pretty frustrating (given some of the students we're talking about), but some have been very useful . . . and actually, I wouldn't be surprised if you eventually find some like-minded colleagues.
And I hate to tell you . . . but I have had conversations about how to help students succeed, and how to help them write better, etc. Some of those conversations are pretty frustrating (given some of the students we're talking about), but some have been very useful . . . and actually, I wouldn't be surprised if you eventually find some like-minded colleagues.
toothpickmoe:
Don't they? Shit, now I wish I really did have them!