The other post would be a description of a workplace dominated by lower classmen terrified and resentful about the language requirement, new assistant professors concerned about research and teaching evaluations, and serious about the language program and worried about tenure, and instructors and adjuncts resentful that there were any assistant professors at all and who … More Et encore
I should have a flyer placed surreptitiously under everyone’s door saying “Don’t fret — organize,” but I will have a sticker made to put on student compositions and it will say: DON’T TRANSLATE, COMPOSE! Axé.
I do not have time to say why these population groups are also to be criticized much more than they are already but I owe you posts of vitriol against adjuncts, student affairs officers, counselors, and psychotherapists, especially in our region, and I will give one anecdote to explain why: My student was recruited by … More And now: against adjuncts, and against counselors and student affairs officers as well
They hired three people and gave us difficult circumstances. Soon our question each day was this: what will we find we have done, in the normal course of doing our jobs and also attempting to create conditions in which our jobs can even be done as specified, that will turn out to have offended the … More On why obedience was survival
…and part of why I used to start shaking when my building on campus came into view. Scene: Today, my office with me behind schedule, coming from meetings, getting ready for class, not finished grading, trying to make some executive decisions on how, exactly, to handle the six hours of classes I was about to … More This is the kind of low-level drama I so dislike
You have to obey, obey, obey, do exactly as you are told, because we know the method and we also know the culture and we are sure that only if you obey, obey, obey, will you not be tossed out in the street. The idea was always to learn to obey better, and if you … More Coda on obedience
I am having more realizations than I have time to explain but I will note them so I do not forget. 4. On making it fun by taking authority and making it work for you. Anything that seems like drudgery has to be reformed, and if you are stuck on your project, there is something … More Insights Four to Seven
I never got comfortable teaching certain kinds of classes for the same kind of reason as some people, on purpose, do not learn to type: they do not want it to be their destiny. It would be easier if I got comfortable anyway. How to do this is the question, how to make the person … More Insight Three
Large projects are slightly frightening and to do them, or start them, you have to have authority in them. It is all very well to say, break them into small parts, but if you have renounced authority in these projects then you cannot begin. It is not a question of procrastination but of authority (and … More Insight Two
I remember discussing difficulties managing work days with another new assistant professor who had observed professors more closely than I had. He said: “Your problem is that you are not hiding enough.” At the time I did not think this was a comprehensive enough answer and I did not fully understand it. But it has … More “You are not hiding enough.”
