Just out of curiosity, Louis, how many students do you have each semester in
your 4
sections of US History? I have 150 students in my 1 section of intro psych and
another
120 in my two sections of animal behavior. And, of course, I've got about 75
undergraduate
advisees. (And no, I do not have a TA.)
Ed, I'm not sure why a few are letting these couple of lines irritate them so.
Anyway, I
am senior professor on campus, completing my 40th year at VSU. Yet, I still
carry a full
teaching load by choice; I don't ask for paid leave for research or
publication; I am
still on committees; I attend and present at major conferences on teaching in
higher
education, paying a goodly sum out of my pocket; by choice I have only first
year survey
classes; I carry the largest student load in the department and probably in the
whole of A
& S; I handle four classes with a usual total enrollment of 190 to 200 students
whose
daily journals I read daily. And while I don't have any formal undergraduate
advisees,
I'm actively and constantly interacting in a variety of ways with a significant
percentage
of them. And no, I do not have a TA either.
Do I know the cares and concerns of each student? Of course not!!!
Your choice
Could I even if I tried? Not a chance.
You don't know what you can or can't do until you do try and find a way
Do I even want to? Not really.
That's where we differ. And, I would suggest that it is the last answer that
influence
the first two. Because I want to and am willing to put in the time, I have
found ways to
be able to do so.
I think it's just fine that you try to learn the cares & concerns of your
students but
I'm betting that your classes are small enough to permit that only because
there are guys
like me who are willing to carry the load of very large classes so that the
university can
afford to let you teach smaller classes.
You'd lose your bet. In fact, its me who allows my department colleagues to
carry much
smaller loads.
And I am certainly NOT trying to imply that I do more work than you. I'm quite
certain
that you devote far more time to each student than do I. I am suggesting that
the total
amount of time evens out and that each of us serves in our own way.
It's a question of allocation of time determined by professional priorities and
educational philosophy, isn't it?
The reason people get so annoyed at posts such as this one is that it implies
that what
you do is more valuable than a) what others do and that b) students would be
better off if
we were all Schmier clones.
The implication of which you speak lies in the eyes of the reader not in my
explications.
You know Mother Teresa once said, "I want you to be concerned with your
neighbor. Do you
know your next door neighbor?" That is, have you cut through the opaque veil of
abstractions, preconceptions, prejudgments? And while she is a Nobelist and
many are
calling for her to be canonized, there were many in higher social and political
levels who
would have preferred her hide as her words and actions spotlighted gross
disparities.
I'm only suggesting that a) what you do, while valuable, isn't necessarily
better and
that b) not only would students not necessarily be better off with a campus
full of
Schmiers, many students could not afford to even attend the university because
the cost of
all those small (Schmierean) classes would make it prohibitively expensive.
I think you might engender less hostility on this list if you spent even half
the time
trying to understand the problems of your colleagues that you spend trying to
understand
the problem of your students.
I wonder how you and others would respond to such critiques of higher education
found in
PBS' documentary Declining By Degrees and the report of the Spelling Commission.
Make it a good day.
--Louis--
Louis Schmier www.therandomthoughts.com
Department of History www.newforums.com/L_Schmier.htm
Valdosta State University
Valdosta, Georgia 31698 /\ /\ /\ /\
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mountains \ /\
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hills" -/
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