I would prefer even to fail with honor than win by cheating.
Sophocles
Sign of the Day
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| HT Cafe Hayek |
Image of the Day
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| Via We the Individuals |
Reflections on College Teaching
My elementary school teacher niece posted a videos of teachers writing letters to themselves as newbies. It's an interesting topic: what had academia not prepared me for in the teaching experience? I could write an essay which I haven't done to date about the academic version of office politics and the need for junior professors to be low-profile. I could talk about the difficulties of new preps and changing textbooks, the political problems of having higher standards than one's colleagues. For my second year at UWM, I gave up a cherished graduate course to teach an undergraduate service course, probably the worst decision I've ever made. I never should have accepted UTEP's job offer (at the time of the offer they had not achieved AACSB accreditation and wanted my vita/resume to add to the application).
But there were little things I picked up, even as a teaching fellow in Houston. For example (and I think I've mentioned this incident in the past), the last year I taught the undergraduate service course (I would teach DSS, an upper-division class, the next year), I decided just to go around to the student computer labs where some of my students were working on their COBOL programs; there were work-study lab student majors who often helped the students with routine errors. I did hold office hours and debugged dozens, if not hundreds of program errors the lab majors couldn't handle. But a lot of students never came to ask for help. There was a middle-aged woman of color in one of my sections who was stumped why her assignment output wasn't showing the expected field values. Not to go too much into the intricacies of computer programming, but there are ways of padding a field to the left or right with spaces, zeroes, or other characters; what was happening in this lady's program was she was displaying the space padding for the field in her output (she erred in specifying her output line). I instantly knew the solution, what to fix, etc., but I decided instead was to try to lead her in a Socratic fashion to diagnosing the problem herself. She got the hard part of the program right; she just had a minor error in displaying the program's output. She did figure it out, and I'll never forget her smiling, appreciative response: "You're a great teacher!" Unfortunately, I would never hear that again in my remaining years of teaching.
The lesson I got from that incident is sometimes you have to go outside your comfort zone as a teacher. I noticed a similar incident involving playing teen baseball. As a southpaw, players normally play outfield, pitch or play first base. I usually played outfield before settling into first base my last year of baseball. This one game I was trying to field like a major league player, stretching from the bag, but my colleagues were throwing wildly at first--feet over my outstretched glove or several feet past the bag. I was demoralized and the crowd was booing ME. We had no reserve that day, and my angry coach threatened to pull me, which would have meant forfeiting the game. I snapped back maybe he should, when he did the smartest thing I've ever seen a coach do--he suggested that I play first base off the bag like an outfielder and simply outrun the base runner to first base. It was a paradigm shift in playing the position, and it worked like a charm. I couldn't improve my fellow players' bad throws, but I did have the power to adjust my playing style; it was unconventional, but it worked for this team.
In a similar way, I had no control over the heterogeneous nature of my students, their uneven preparedness, work habits or different skills and experience, but I did have control in how I approached the class. I'm not sure I had the same degree of success, but e.g., when I discovered my UTEP database students didn't know data structures, despite an explicit course prerequisite, I spent the next week or two teaching data structures.
I am a perfectionist. What I remember after teaching my first college classes is how I would have done so many things differently if I had to do it over again. I was at a department store buying a men's suit when one of my former students recognized me. I started to apologize for his being one of the guinea pigs of my first classes teaching. He stopped me and said, "You know, while I was taking your class, I hated your guts." (Okay, I thought to myself: this is really not going as well as I hoped...) He then continued, "I later discovered I learned more in your class than in any other class I had at UH. In fact, I was just talking about you at lunch the other day... I wouldn't change a thing." Then I remember suggesting that my advanced student majors seek opportunities with a management consulting company, like Accenture and Deloitte; to be honest, I thought the students just blew it off. We had an MIS research center at UH, and after one presentation, a sharply dressed young man hurried over to talk to me. "Do you remember me from DSS class? I took your advice, and I'm with Accenture..." I was amazed; something I said in class actually impacted someone's life decisions. Now granted I've taught hundreds of students, and few if any have ever been in touch. But the little feedback I got helped me stay the course.Blacks: What Happened After the Civil Rights Battles Were Won
Facebook Corner
(IPI). NBC Chicago: "Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel plans to sign an executive order that requires city contractors and subcontractors to pay employees a $13-an-hour minimum wage."
Someone needs to get rid of these demagogues. The last time I heard, Chicago's finances were a mess. To whatever extent any subcontractors are making under the new minimum (given only about 2% of jobs overall are minimum wage), you can be sure that any incremental costs will be passed along to the Chicago taxpayer, but I would also expect contractors to do what most employers do, e.g., hire fewer workers or cut hours, shift dollars from benefits to wages, etc. The idea that city contractors will drive up wages for other employees is sheer fantasy.
(Jeffrey Tucker). I once met a libertarian who turned out to be kind of annoying. Should I write a bit splashy article for Salon? http://www.salon.com/2014/09/03/confessions_of_a_recovering_libertarian_how_i_escaped_a_world_of_ron_paul_hero_worship/#comments
He probably thought he could score points with progressive chicks. Anyone want to break the news to him?
Proposals
Musical Interlude: My Favorite Vocalists
Petula Clark, "I Couldn't Live Without Your Love"
