My first semester as a teacher, and this semester as well, my laboratory students came and complained to me about their lecture professors. It seems that several of them fall way behind or fail to cover certain topics of subject matter either towards which the students looked forward or which they felt as important to their future academic success. This inchoate effort to educate betrays the fundamental problem with education in general, and the tenure system ensures continuity of this broken state of affairs.
Our educators fail to realize that their job is part of a contract. For a sum of money, students pay for information which we provide as a service in exchange for their specie. When we fail to deliver information expressed on the syllabus, we in essence commit breach of contract. Students have PAID us to give them information. Maybe 10% of our faculty understand the student-teacher relationship. The increase in cost rarely results in increase of information disseminated to the students, if ever, and the governor's mandate has robbed the students of my tutelage in favor of individuals less qualified and less inclined to deliver on the College's promise.
There was a man who decided to start a barbershop. The demand was so high despite his relative inexperience, that in order to keep up with the customers, he never actually finished any of the haircuts. Eventually people noticed. Soon after that, he had no customers. If we cut hair here, we'd be out of business in six months.
Like the barber, the college for which I work among others is derelict in its contractual obligations. No matter what politicians tell you, the problem with education is the philosophy by which people enter academic employment. We got along for years with fewer members of the administration. We would get along better with instructors who liked their job and always gave their very best, even if they sometimes have a bad day or two or six.
Some of our instructors belong in other fields. The union and the governor keep them in place. One of them just plays on the computer during lab. One of them just reads off of her slides in lecture. Few of them actually answer questions. Some of them wouldn't know what to say anyway. One of them even lost her temper in class and dismissed early. At least one misses her last position at a larger university. All of them think we need more money. What we really need are people who love their job, because then we can maximize our resources by hiring people who love to teach, even if they earn less money than they could elsewhere. The union protects the ensconced, tenure prevents terminations, and legislation forestalls appointment of the best interested parties.
I hear Rory Reid has a plan. I can virtually guarantee it will fail. We do not need more taxes, more bureaucracy, or more facilities. We need people who love to teach and who excel at it. That is the first step to change performance. It's not about staffing the department with PhDs and JDs and all those other high-falutin' Greeks. The students don't really care how much I know until I become real to them and they know that they are real to me.
Every semester I have twins in one of my classes. Last semester, the girls knew I knew who they were, just not which name went with which girl. I could tell them apart. I knew things about them and they about me. We shared personal experiences. We shared real-world applications.
Build relationships of trust and you will improve education. Students will trust teachers who convince them that the students and the subject matter to them. I promise. They pay us for a product. We ought to give them the best bang for their buck possible. That will earn their "brand loyalty" for generations to come.
Our educators fail to realize that their job is part of a contract. For a sum of money, students pay for information which we provide as a service in exchange for their specie. When we fail to deliver information expressed on the syllabus, we in essence commit breach of contract. Students have PAID us to give them information. Maybe 10% of our faculty understand the student-teacher relationship. The increase in cost rarely results in increase of information disseminated to the students, if ever, and the governor's mandate has robbed the students of my tutelage in favor of individuals less qualified and less inclined to deliver on the College's promise.
There was a man who decided to start a barbershop. The demand was so high despite his relative inexperience, that in order to keep up with the customers, he never actually finished any of the haircuts. Eventually people noticed. Soon after that, he had no customers. If we cut hair here, we'd be out of business in six months.
Like the barber, the college for which I work among others is derelict in its contractual obligations. No matter what politicians tell you, the problem with education is the philosophy by which people enter academic employment. We got along for years with fewer members of the administration. We would get along better with instructors who liked their job and always gave their very best, even if they sometimes have a bad day or two or six.
Some of our instructors belong in other fields. The union and the governor keep them in place. One of them just plays on the computer during lab. One of them just reads off of her slides in lecture. Few of them actually answer questions. Some of them wouldn't know what to say anyway. One of them even lost her temper in class and dismissed early. At least one misses her last position at a larger university. All of them think we need more money. What we really need are people who love their job, because then we can maximize our resources by hiring people who love to teach, even if they earn less money than they could elsewhere. The union protects the ensconced, tenure prevents terminations, and legislation forestalls appointment of the best interested parties.
I hear Rory Reid has a plan. I can virtually guarantee it will fail. We do not need more taxes, more bureaucracy, or more facilities. We need people who love to teach and who excel at it. That is the first step to change performance. It's not about staffing the department with PhDs and JDs and all those other high-falutin' Greeks. The students don't really care how much I know until I become real to them and they know that they are real to me.
Every semester I have twins in one of my classes. Last semester, the girls knew I knew who they were, just not which name went with which girl. I could tell them apart. I knew things about them and they about me. We shared personal experiences. We shared real-world applications.
Build relationships of trust and you will improve education. Students will trust teachers who convince them that the students and the subject matter to them. I promise. They pay us for a product. We ought to give them the best bang for their buck possible. That will earn their "brand loyalty" for generations to come.
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