Is this the wrong place and time to say, no fooling, I actually like teaching a lot and even, you know, regard it as a worthwhile, ahem, calling?
I think you distort this by not quoting the parts of this letter, and the whole letter is only a little longer than what you do quote, where this guy(?) is mostly disappointed with rys becoming an "improve yourself" site, while he wants a place to vent, not another place that assumes he's wrong unless he's happy.
Not wrong at all.
I, on the other hand, after two years of teaching experience, console myself for my current miserable job with "at least it's not teaching".
I wonder if it's prompted by anger over the previous post, which was incredibly smarmy and self-righteous IMO. As well as counter to the spirit of the whole site.
During my one year as a HS near-teacher I saw how depressed 2/3 of the teachers were and decided that it wasn't for me.
1/3 weren't depressed because they had escape plans, and 1/3 were high-energy, positive-thinking people who liked what they were doing. I'm not a high-energy, positive-thinking person.
Reflexive snark: Weren't teaching math, were you?
Yeah, it was a special school staffed at 133 1/3 %.
I like the teaching part of teaching. There's a lot of crappy bureaucratic overhead that kind of sucks the joy out of it, though.
I wonder if it's an anger prompted by caring about teaching in the wrong way
I'm not sure what you mean by this phrase, but as I read it, it might mean thinking you're going to get something different out of teaching than you possibly could.
Trying to avoid o-earnestness, here's what I think might be "caring about teaching in the right way":
(1) I like teaching partly for selfish reasons: it's fun. At least when I'm in the classroom, I'm JE's high-energy person, deeply invested in the material for its own sake, and delighting in the students' delighting in it. All of that is about me feeling good when I'm teaching, and nothing to do with service to anyone.
(2) I get down on it, too. Mostly when I think students are treating the process in bad faith -- not trying, in other words. You can't upset me by doing poorly in my class; you can upset me by visibly not trying (not coming to class, coming late, not doing reading, turning in papers late w/o excuse or notice, etc.).
(3) I take the "calling" idea quite seriously. Look, this work has value. I'm not going to argue its precise value with the economists, but I have no qualms about asserting its value in building character and intellect.
(4) The above notwithstanding I try to keep teaching in perspective. The person who is me is not the person who is my classroom persona. So critiques of that persona -- and, yes, appreciations of that persona -- are not really about me, except inasmuch as they're about my work.
(5) I think that last point, (4), is where I think problems sometimes come in. Teaching isn't you, it's part of your job; if you let it become you, you will get very sad, for two reasons:
(a) much as students may like you, the point of diminishing pedagogical returns for putting yourself into your teaching comes pretty quickly. You're not actually that important to them. This is only a quarter / semester -long arrangement; moreover, it's 1/4 or 1/5 of their classroom life for that period of 10-15 weeks.
(b) much as you may like teaching / students, the point of diminishing professional returns for putting yourself into your teaching comes pretty quickly if you're in a research institution, as anyone contemplating tenure, promotion, or job-application will know. This may or may not be a good thing, but it is a real thing. I find that bad teaching can sink you, but good teaching can't help you if the rest of your file isn't in order. And people who think of themselves as teachers, first and foremost, do, you might even say honorably, resent that.
I know someone -- I'm looking at you, John Emerson -- might well fixate on point 5b; please try to notice everything else I said, too.
Haha! backwards causation!
5a is critical. It's important to keep in mind that we are not Mr Chips.
More broadly, the Angry Email struck me as a product of failing to appreciate (4). Sure, the audience might suck, but there's no shame in doing a good show regardless. (I found that my teaching improved when I tried not to take any of the bad stuff personally.)
I really liked teaching in Taiwan. This is a sterotype, but Chinese culture really honors teachers, and the students will be looking for any excuse to like you. At best it's completely sincere and very sweet, and at worst it's a lot better than having half the class trying to sabotage you. (The biggest actual problem is bribery attempts by weak students in adult-ed classes.)
My recent stint as a temp adjunct type was not much fun. It was a strictly optional course for everyone, and only about 10 of 15 students finished the class, and only about 3 of them were interested and making a legit effort. When the class looked up at me sometimes they reminded me of a bunch of live fish lying on ice in a fishshup, with those sad looks on their faces that fish often have.
Yep, cross-posted.
As for
when I tried not to take any of the bad stuff personally
they key word is of course "tried". I know lots of good teachers who will plow through a stack of 150 student evaluations, 149 glowing, only to fret about the one complaint.
I was just looking through a back thread, in the service of a comment I decided not to make, and this caused a quiet smile.
I only just now clicked through to the RYS link, and I see that the Angry Email actually has the measure of (4) (or claims to):
I'm not my job. I'm me.
Hmmm.
I don't think I'm a terrible teacher (mediocre seems more accurate) but I feel terribly about it. People who talk to me about history in casual conversation often seem to think that I'd be a good teacher but I can't seem to translate any of that energy into classroom discussions (with practice, I could probably get into lecturing). I've come to the conclusion that teaching - at least the bit of it I've done as a TA - is a horrible social situation for me and yet one more reason for me to not become a teacher or Professor. When I teach I do everything poorly, including sleeping and eating.
Do I think teaching is important, even to the extent of giving it "calling" status? Yes and I think it's better for students to be taught by people who care and can teach than by those who care and can't.
I can't seem to translate any of that energy into classroom discussions
You could try caffeine, clean-liver.
More seriously? It takes practice, and mastery of craft. It isn't about who you are -- I mean obviously, some people have a leg up in this, just as Nijinsky is supposed to have been anatomically suited for ballet. But you can still do quite well by perfecting technique.
I've read that it helps to imagine the whole class without any clothes on, especially the nice-looking ones.
Slol:
I'm pretty sure that Labs meant that your original comment used up your earnest quota for the day, not that you could be as earnest as you liked if you kept it to this thread.
We have found this blog because you have found ours. Much great stuff here. We will come back around.
I await Labs's punitive outing of me, augmented by an anatomy of my character flaws and punctuated by analysis of anime.
I apologize too for offenses against the gods of o-earnestness, and for good measure, Tim, I snark at thee.
Is that better?
Mthinks that RYS is not to be trusted.
My God! The RYS people have learned how to write perfect fake comment-spam (#24). I am in awe. I was totally fooled.
Whoops. We meant no offense. We would like to think it was possible to write perfect fake comment-spam, but seriously don't think it is.
Could I interest you, instead, in a waffle cone, with some chocolate jimmies?
Could a bot come up with that $hit? Methinks not.
Oh, and buy lots of Sherwin Williams paint. It goes on thick, and tastes great with butter.
RYS
No worries, RYS. Where Emerson lives, it is often opposite day.
I think RYS will fit right in. Weiner, fetch the fruit basket!
I read that there's one scientist who thinks eating paint is good for you, but that he's been shut out by the scientific establishment for his unorthodox views. The real shame is that apparently he's also a really dynamic teacher.
Dynamic. What the fuck does that even mean? Speakers and teachers are the only ones who can be dynamic -- or leaders, now that I think about it. Right? Dynamic leader -- does that sound right?
Dynamic. What the fuck does that even mean?
As you know,
the dynamo itself was but an ingenious channel for conveying somewhere the heat latent in a few tons of poor coal hidden in a dirty engine-house carefully kept out of sight
Not all paint is good for you. That's where the guy went wrong.
Complimentary fruit basket for RYS!
Did little Miss Thing get a fruit basket? She would have been a credit to the site.
the funny thing is we went looking for the fruit basket. imagine our surprise...and horror.
it will be hard to get any work done when we know how much fun is going on over here.
RYS
it will be hard to get any work done when we know how much fun is going on over here
RYS, the solution to your problem lies, as it does for all problems, in the unfogged archives. Unfortunately, in order to know what to search for, you generally need to already know the answer. In your case, meet comments 80, 86 & 87
RYS, no one gets any work done. We sit around bitching about our students in order to cover up our own inadequacy and sloth.
When I was a grad student, often the teaching-assistant part was the good part, because you had definite tasks to perform and could feel like you were doing something, even if it was just grading papers.
But it depended on the students. The advanced undergrad class in particle physics was loads of fun, but I also kept having to teach electromagnetism to pre-meds. Smart kids, but they obviously cared as much about Maxwell's equations as about the pimple on the ass of a bug on Pluto, yet desperately needed excellent grades, which is a toxic combination. I've never heard so much special pleading in my life.