An article in the Chronicle of Higher Ed caused so much consternation at my university that there is now a lecture series based on it. This long and confusing piece can be summarized as “teaching is a worthless drain on your time, so don’t do it.” I find the suggestion appalling and the arguments used to support it bizarre.
Here is one of the very weird stories that the author shares to support his anti-teaching philosophy:
An undergraduate in a course for which I was a TA. . . came to me struggling with a particular assignment. I eagerly laid out an ambitious program for extra assistance, study, and readings that would, I promised him, if he fully applied himself, not only reveal the wonders of the course material but almost certainly guarantee him a great grade. His response shocked me: He was taking five classes, working 30 hours a week, his mother was in the hospital, and he was majoring in another subject. He was taking this course only for a distributional requirement.
In other words, as he put it, “I don’t have time for anything but a C.”
What should have shocked this person should have been a realization that his professional persona is not managing to evoke an ounce of respect in the students. If a student thinks it is appropriate to insult an instructor in this way, this means the instructor is in urgent need of taking classes in pedagogy.
The assistant professor sat back and reflected on the narrative of tragedy and frustration in which he had participated. A year before, he had joined a prestigious program at a research university. Within weeks, a doctoral student had come to him seeking an adviser and, their interests being similar, they had agreed on a match.
At a PRESTIGIOUS RESEARCH university, an assistant professor who has just been hired directs doctoral dissertations? Seriously? I never in my life heard of anything of the kind. Are there really weird students who take such an enormous gamble with their careers? And the departments allow that? This is nothing but an issue of idiocy feeding off more idiocy. Last semester I directed senior assignments of our graduating seniors, and I did not do a very good job (which I duly reported to the Chair and the personnel committee.) I’m trying to learn but it is taking time and effort. The idea that a recently hired Assistant Prof can direct doctoral research is simply bizarre.
There is a point when the perennially failing advisee, whom nothing or no one seems able to rescue, would be better helped by your being a kind, encouraging, nonjudgmental, and creative exit counselor than by your continually accepting one more missed deadline or badly written draft.
This sounds like the author of the piece sees no alternative to being the students’ Daddy (both constant acceptance and nonjudgmental counseling are parenting strategies, not a way of building a professional relationship among adults). The possibility of simply failing a student does not even seem to occur to him. It becomes even more obvious that the author of the article is incapable of seeing his students as adults when he says the following:
Take a typical case of a student who is struggling in your class. On the positive side, he comes to your office hours—always. He seeks extra help outside of office hours. He asks lots of questions in class. And you are doing good: The problem child is improving.
A student might be problematic but if s/he is in college, this means there is no way s/he can possibly be a child.
After reading this article, I remain deeply convinced that Chronicle of Higher Ed has a goal of presenting academics in the worst possible light. It invites writers who consistently represent the worst that the academia has to offer. If I had read this publication before deciding to become an academic, I probably would have made a different choice.
Clarissa's Blog 
In the sciences, an untenured prof taking on students seems pretty common to me. Of course there are risks of which we are usually made aware, and if a particular professor is problematic, that news does travel quickly. Generally though, the faculty hired are so good there is little risk they will not get tenure, and each student gets a committee assigned with whom they meet annually which will mitigate any disasters, should they happen.
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First of all, this writer is not in the sciences. He is in Mass Comm.
“Generally though, the faculty hired are so good there is little risk they will not get tenure”
– This is not why I think this is a pernicious practice.
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Right, I understood he was not in sciences .
Why do you think an untenured advisor is bad?
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Never mind – I should have kept reading down thread where you explaining your concerns more.
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I got my Ph. D. precisely three years after my advisor got his. I began working with him almost as soon as he was hired.
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I have to say that I will never understand this. If a department doesn’t have enough senior faculty to work with graduate students, then it should simply accept less graduate students. Graduate students deserve quality guidance. It’s great that you were brilliant and could do everything on your own. Most people, however, need a thesis director who can direct.
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In the 1960’s there was a huge increase in graduate applications in mathematics. The senior professor I wanted to work with urged me to swith to the person I did work with, since he realized I was a self-starter. It was exactly the right decision for me.
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Well, it was an exceptional situation. Today, however, there is this disturbing trend to base the decision about the number of graduate students that are accepted into a program on the internal needs of a department and not on how many of these students can realistically be taught anything or placed after they graduate.
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Here in my university, a untenured professor should have a tenured professor as at least the co-director to direct doctorate students.
(the tenured professor is often the director and the untenured the co-director)
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“Here in my university, a untenured professor should have a tenured professor as at least the co-director to direct doctorate students.”
– That is a much more responsible policy. A thesis director should be able to help with the job search. And how can a recently graduated person whom nobody knows be of any help? What weight will his letter of recommendation carry? How will a job applicant feel when she says, “My thesis was directed by X” at a campus visit and everybody goes “Who?”
It is very difficult to find jobs in academia right now and I believe that departments are acting in an extremely irresponsible “numbers above all” manner when they permit this.
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“but almost certainly guarantee him a great grade.”
As a teacher and a TA, our goal is certainly not to guarantee a great grade to a student. What the fuck is that?
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““I don’t have time for anything but a C.””
C is a very acceptable grad for a teacher or TA, why not D, in fact?
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gradE
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““I don’t have time for anything but a C.””
– I would seriously wonder what I’m doing in this profession if students started addressing such statements to me. Whatever his grade needs are, this statement is disrespectful.
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This student addressed such a statement because the TA have guaranteed him a great grade, which is certainly not the task of a TA. So he deserved this statement.
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Of course, its is the TA’s responsibility to cultivate a professional persona that will command respect.
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I disagree. Given the particular student’s situation I think the student was completely appropriate. He was asking for help with a specific task not at all requesting a volunteer academic mentor.
The TA was being weird and intrusive and (provided that the student’s intonation and body language were not impolite) then there was nothing wrong with stating the simple truth.
What do you think the student should have said?
It would be wonderful if every student wanted to drain every last little bit of knowledge possible out of every course, but given the nature of US universities which guarantees that every student will have to take some courses that are neither especially interesting or useful for them…. then aiming for a C is reasonable.
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“What do you think the student should have said?”
– “Thank you, I will think about this.”
“It would be wonderful if every student wanted to drain every last little bit of knowledge possible out of every course, but given the nature of US universities which guarantees that every student will have to take some courses that are neither especially interesting or useful for them…. then aiming for a C is reasonable.”
– Nobody disagrees, but there are basic rules of politeness.
“The TA was being weird and intrusive and (provided that the student’s intonation and body language were not impolite) then there was nothing wrong with stating the simple truth.”
– There are many simple truths that are not stated by polite, professional people in professional settings. Students are adults and should be held to the same standard as any other adults.
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However, the student should have thanked the TA for that and politely refused his help. But again, I think the TA deserved it.
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I actually liked this article. (Although I hate mostly everything in the Chronice!.) I agree that they way he casts his advice is problematic (phrases like “problem child” are worrying.) But I think the fundamental advice is quite good: don’t be the student’s therapist; accept that not all students want or will get “As”; don’t overburden yourself with trying to be a “savior.” I don’t think he is saying teaching is a waste of time. I think he is saying that teachers need to set limits and value their their own time or they will never have time for their research or time for themselves. And I really agree with the idea of setting limits.
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“My first semester on the tenure track was, blessedly, my worst. My greatest frustration was teaching a course on a subject I had never studied. I probably devoted more time preparing, catching up, grading, and writing lectures in that course than in any that I have subsequently taught.”
OH THE POOR GUY, HE HAD TO WORK ON HIS TEACHING!
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I know! Such drama over nothing.
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“An early lesson I learned in graduate school was that my course, my subject, and I were not necessarily the center of every student’s world.”
Why he had to learn this? When he was a student, his professors were the center of his world?
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“the student should have thanked the TA for that and politely refused his help”
Well he may have done that. The only record of the conversation is by the offended TA (who may have heard the student politely declining as “I don’t have time for anything more than a C”).
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That’s strongly possible, and against, he deserved it.
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again
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Maybe people in America wouldn’t consider teaching a waste of time if it paid better!
There’s an old adage that you get what you pay for. Why does Canada consistently beat America in International competitive exams in education? In America some teachers qualify for food stamps. Consider the following salaries for teachers published in today’s Toronto Star. (The Canadian dollar is at par with the American dollar so although these numbers are in C.D. they can be transposed to U.S.D.)
Sam Hammond: $172,034.54
Elementary School Teacher, Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board
Paul Elliot: $170,288.87
Teacher, Rainy River District School Board
Harvey Bischof: $170,377.47
Secondary teacher, Durham District School Board
Earl Burt: $163,602.23
Secondary Teacher, Toronto District School Board
Stephanie Ledger: $162,339.76
Elementary teacher, Waterloo Region District School Board
http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2013/03/28/highlights_from_the_2013_sunshine_list.html
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We are being threatened with our teaching load going to 4:4 which basically amounts to perpetrating a fraud against students. Obviously, the salaries will remain the same. And they are a fraction of what this article lists.
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