[Editor’s note: Though we’re still all celebrating Fitzmas here (as even the Angry Biologist hates Blago—though perhaps if Rod were a little less like a pufferfish and a bit more amphibian in his appearance things would be…different), we’ve decided to take a break to express our ongoing anger at, well, everything. Don’t worry, if there’s breaking news about Blago, we’ll be right back to kicking that dog while he’s still down…or perhaps we’ll just throw a shoe! Anyway, without further ado, here’s MPA ranting about a topic near and dear to his heart:]
OK, I haven’t out and out ranted for a while, but it’s after the fall semester as the days get shorter, along with tempers. Of course, I’m not really going to rant, I’m going to lecture-rant, as is fitting and proper.
One of the joys of teaching a technical subject is the fact that it’s necessary to teach intro classes, far more than most people in higher education. I use “joy” completely sarcastically, these are something that most of us find about as pleasant as a root canal. I’ve never had a root canal and hope I never do. but I have had enough other notoriously painful medical procedures (e.g., traction), so I’ll extrapolate. All jobs have their pain and drudgery component and this is one of mine.
Kudos to people who do them well because they are hard. There are two big problems. First, unfortunately, the large lecture doesn’t match up with the personal characteristics for which the job otherwise selects, i.e., an ability and willingness to pick apart the details of things, an ability to concentrate on details for long periods of time, etc., all components of introversion. (My particular line of work frequently involves working and reworking mathematical proofs and derivations for hours on end, or doing the same with computer output. It’s like sudoku on steroids.) Running a small class is easy and some classes of highly motivated advanced students go on their own almost without the need for an instructor at all. Running a medium sized (15-20 person) class is a bit harder but well within the reach of most people with some practice. That I do very well (based on my efficiency ratings, not my opinion). The big class… ugh, there’s just too much “room” to cover, too many fragile egos—intro classes are taken by noobs (freshmen, first year grad students, etc.), after all—and so on, and given how students have been educated these days, the overwhelming sense of entitlement too many have. And sad to say, overly investing in noobs is dumb because a good percentage of them won’t be there in two years no matter what you do, often for their own good. Intro courses, especially ones with “objective” content like science and math, are used as weeders.
The second problem with classes like these is the fact that the students are very heterogeneous, so you can’t count on much background knowledge. (In a smaller class this can be remedied more easily one-on-one or by encouraging a peer “buddy system.”) Sadly these days, a fair number can’t even do algebra competently, regardless of what they claim to know. Some know how to buckle down to make it through class, and, most importantly, aren’t so afraid that when you say “do the homework and you’ll get it,” they do the homework and find out that, indeed, they get it. A small, vociferous minority of these always seem to want “big picture” or “conceptual” understanding of the material essentially for free (with a nice grade to go along, naturally), without any sweat equity in their own educations. Unfortunately, these are usually the ones with the least ability to comprehend the concepts and not happy when you tell them “Look, you have to learn the details before the big picture will make any sense and that comes from, you guessed it, doing the homework.” Worse yet, they need a lot of hand holding and many feel sufficiently entitled to expect you to drop whatever else it is you’re doing (e.g., your other classes, working with the too often horribly neglected advanced students, serving on academic committees, doing your research, trying not to go insane in the short days of December, etc.) to accommodate their schedules. Inevitably you end up trying to teach to the middle but because the class is so variable, you get wild-ass questions that translate to, essentially, “I already know all this, why do I have to take this course?” and “We’re going too fast, why can’t we do the material from two weeks ago again?”
If you’re a mathphobe and you hated math and science classes—something I hear all the time in conversation is, “I hated that course!” or “I’m hopeless at math!”—guess what? The feeling is mutual, both as regards your particular fragile psychology and the giant intro class we are both stuck in. Sit down, shut up, get to work and we’ll make the best of it.
The totally bizarre thing is, like Dr. Johnson’s view of second marriages, the triumph of hope over experience hits again next semester. Fortunately there’s a good six weeks off between. Everyone needs it. 🙂
ObBlago: Ah, to be the professor in his intro classes and be able to flunk his punk ass right out of Northwestern, which should be ashamed to have him as an alum. My messy office for a Tardis….
The 12 Angry Men Blog 
December 17, 2008 at 1:26 pm
My favorite teaching philosophy (from someone in my grandmother’s generation) was just to teach to the upper half, give extra attention to the advanced students, and only go out of your way for the few others who were clearly already going out of their own way to keep up.
That was in a farming community, though, and slackers knew that their alternative was milking cows for 50 years…
They were up against the Red Commies, they couldn’t afford to coddle the fragile.
I’d bet half the fragile -are- Commies at your school…
December 17, 2008 at 4:41 pm
I’d bet half the fragile -are- Commies at your school…
Only if they’re champagne liberals. They want to make $$$. But in general no, they’re not. The problem as I see it is this:
Back in the old days education, education didn’t cost an arm and a leg, and standards were high.
As time has gone on, it’s (a) reached farther down in the population and (b) started to cost a bundle. This has changed it to a customer service orientation.
December 18, 2008 at 2:02 am
If we only had more university administrators who had good university administrators.
Nowadays they spend more time restricting speech than they do curing ignorance. Curing someone’s ignorance of where responsibility lies would go a long ways toward creating a better environment for instructors and motivated students.
December 18, 2008 at 5:37 pm
Nowadays they spend more time restricting speech than they do curing ignorance. Curing someone’s ignorance of where responsibility lies would go a long ways toward creating a better environment for instructors and motivated students.
You can tell people all you want, but to quote the GF of a former roommate who teaches literature, “I don’t get paid enough to give C’s.” Admins aren’t going to do it because they’re worried about (a) bad press and (b) donations down the line. Thus they don’t actually have a big incentives to raise standards unless by doing so they bring in more money, e.g., by shifting from a mostly in-state population to an out-of-state population that pays full cost.
December 20, 2008 at 3:47 am
I may be missing the point here, but it seems to me that you and your students are after the same thing: pay without aggravation. In their case, they’re young enough to be excused–sort of–and part of your job, as I understand it, is to supply some idea of what the real world is like, in a limited way. They want their pay (grades) to come without the irritation of having to forego partying and other stuff much more fun than the required studying and doing of homework needed to pass your course, and you want your pay (actual money and other benefits) to come without the difficulty of dealing with, well, teenagers. Not gonna happen in either case.
December 20, 2008 at 12:09 pm
DD3 wrote: I may be missing the point here, but it seems to me that you and your students are after the same thing: pay without aggravation.
Well I did say “All jobs have their pain and drudgery component and this is one of mine.”
I should note that most students are fine, do what they need to do and aren’t a bunch of whiners. The small number (say 15%) who aren’t, however, are the ones who routinely cause my BP to spike. If there was a way to pretest for “problem student”, then just preemptively give them a C- and tell them they don’t need to show up, that would be very nice indeed.
But yes, of course I’d like to cut down the aggravation I experience in my job. Doesn’t everyone? That doesn’t mean I expect to eliminate it, but if there are things I can do to make less I’d sure like to.
June 19, 2009 at 6:25 pm
I’m Jelious. I can’t make math work past simple times tables. I keep being told that “the Problems always come out the same” Then why when I Do the problem five times, I get Five different answers. I can see others doing the work, so I know it is my problem. Thank heaven for calulators,