Dear Globe and Mail...Let me show you a teachable moment
This post is response to the article found on the Globe and Mail website here
I was excited by the subtitle of the article "If big universities spent half as much time on teaching as they do searching for research money, students might be better off", I could not agree more, for sometimes research is used as a crutch for shoddy teaching practices, however I realized as I continued reading that Mr. Simpson really needs a crash course in what really goes on in universities today.
What particularly disturbed me about the article is the following: "Undergraduates, paying more, have nonetheless been greeted by impersonal, huge classes, featuring little contact with actual professors, but teaching assistants (PhD candidates) or part-time lecturers."
Dear Mr. Simpson, what exactly are "actual professors"? Are you implying that I am not an actual teacher, that what I do as a TA or a sessional/contract instructor is somehow less, not good enough, sub-par educationally? Well here is my teachable moment to you Mr. Simpson.
You called our work a "weakness" to universities Mr.Simpson and I would like to let you know that I take great offense to that. As would any self-respecting graduate TA or sessional worker, regardless of discipline. Shame on you Mr. Simpson!
The weakness is that we are not compensated financially for the work that we do. However for the most part, I like to believe that the reason that we do it is because of the passion we have for the material and for teaching in general. This is our reward. I would like you to contact any of my students that I had last year to see if they felt "short changed" by me because I was making peanut money. I would teach for less, why? because I love to teach.
For you to say that graduate students are somehow the weakest link in the chain disregards all the work that we do for crap money, because WE WANT TO. That's the difference. Sure you will get the occasional graduate student, like you will get the occasional tenured professor who is more interested in their research than their teaching load. However, in your article you have seemingly grouped all graduate students and contract faculty as poor educators...again I say SHAME!
EDIT
Professor Orwin states what I was trying to say above in a much more articulate manner from a tenured professor's opinion here
His is a response to yet another poorly researched misinformed article by the ever-clueless Margaret Wente, who's "itinerant" loving (her favourite word in regards to graduate students and sessional instructors) bile can be found here (don't say I didn't warn you!)
Comments are welcome!
I was excited by the subtitle of the article "If big universities spent half as much time on teaching as they do searching for research money, students might be better off", I could not agree more, for sometimes research is used as a crutch for shoddy teaching practices, however I realized as I continued reading that Mr. Simpson really needs a crash course in what really goes on in universities today.
What particularly disturbed me about the article is the following: "Undergraduates, paying more, have nonetheless been greeted by impersonal, huge classes, featuring little contact with actual professors, but teaching assistants (PhD candidates) or part-time lecturers."
Dear Mr. Simpson, what exactly are "actual professors"? Are you implying that I am not an actual teacher, that what I do as a TA or a sessional/contract instructor is somehow less, not good enough, sub-par educationally? Well here is my teachable moment to you Mr. Simpson.
You called our work a "weakness" to universities Mr.Simpson and I would like to let you know that I take great offense to that. As would any self-respecting graduate TA or sessional worker, regardless of discipline. Shame on you Mr. Simpson!
The weakness is that we are not compensated financially for the work that we do. However for the most part, I like to believe that the reason that we do it is because of the passion we have for the material and for teaching in general. This is our reward. I would like you to contact any of my students that I had last year to see if they felt "short changed" by me because I was making peanut money. I would teach for less, why? because I love to teach.
For you to say that graduate students are somehow the weakest link in the chain disregards all the work that we do for crap money, because WE WANT TO. That's the difference. Sure you will get the occasional graduate student, like you will get the occasional tenured professor who is more interested in their research than their teaching load. However, in your article you have seemingly grouped all graduate students and contract faculty as poor educators...again I say SHAME!
EDIT
Professor Orwin states what I was trying to say above in a much more articulate manner from a tenured professor's opinion here
His is a response to yet another poorly researched misinformed article by the ever-clueless Margaret Wente, who's "itinerant" loving (her favourite word in regards to graduate students and sessional instructors) bile can be found here (don't say I didn't warn you!)
Comments are welcome!
Comments
Post a Comment