A vignette for Historiann, obliquely related to her post One of the courses I am teaching now, I first taught when I was 21. Then it was a 5-hour course with 25 students, adequate administrative support, and cooperation among those teaching it. I was paid for 20 hours a week to do this, and between … More Some Arithmetic
So I am still mystified. It seems the main thing people did not learn how to do in graduate school was to write, and that they suffer while writing.What I did not learn in graduate school was how to teach K-12, and I suffer while teaching. There are people who do not suffer while teaching. … More Et encore, encore
When I was younger than I am now, people were always very concerned I might fail. I did not understand why since I had never failed and did well easily, but I did know I was to be especially careful and follow certain really safe paths. “You can’t, you mustn’t, you shouldn’t,” are still a … More The burdens
To new faculty: The reason I am not out drinking with you and being a “fun” colleague is that I am in a meeting to ensure continued funding for your position. I am not telling you this because there is no reason to raise your stress levels this week. I may point out, though, that … More Secrets
People talk about “protecting time” a lot and about practicing discipline but they do not talk as much, it does not seem to me, about protecting the person who writes and that, I discern, is the far greater problem for me. I spend a lot of time in some sort of dissociated state because of … More Protecting the person who writes
I am an elitist, I just figured it out. My student says the reason the other TAs snipe at each other and lord it over their students is that they were not part of the cool kids earlier on in school and they are taking their revenge now. He was cool in school, says my … More Elitist
When we were first hired here, we would wonder why it was so difficult to teach three courses, come through adequately on service, and if we were not writing articles, at least write our conference papers. We could not understand it since 3 courses + minor service + conference papers, our goals that academic year, … More Obedezco pero no cumplo: tenure requirements
There was this character Huipil Woman we promised each other, when young, never to become. She is middle aged, just slightly out of shape and slightly faded, and despite not being Mayan she wears a bright huipil with her denim skirt and sandals. The idea is that the huipil, so fine and shining, will hide … More More on Fashion
People come to cry on your shoulder to spread discouragement, but their more important goal is to invade your space and attempt to create a kind of intimacy just beyond your level of comfort or interest. Once you have accepted this level of discomfort, even for just a few minutes, they know you can be … More J’ai compris
All right, to sum up, here is what I don’t like about it. I got all this advice but the cognitive dissonance was that from what I could actually observe, things were not really this bad. I always thought there was something wrong with me, that I could not see it, and feared what might … More More on Academic Advice
