Early one morning this week, as I set foot on campus, I almost burst into tears. I had been in my numb zone until that moment. But then the awesome and overwhelming sense of something that seemed like an amalgamation of despair, disappointment, and surprise was triggered, I suppose, by my finding myself on a campus not unlike the one I had traversed so many times as an undergraduate. And I guess it was the texture and utter familiarity of that old life juxtaposed in my mind with the current situation that was somehow unbearable and poignant.
My undergrad years were no bed of roses. Stressful, yes, and fun and tense and awful and all that other stuff. But there was hope in there. Or at least meaning. A better life was ahead.
But today higher education is a battlefield full of carnage. After one of my adjunct "colleagues" died recently, the college did not mention him in any press release, the administration sent no campus-wide email mentioning his passing, and no one that I recognized was at his funeral.
And the students. They might as well be trying to climb up a greased flagpole. Why do the colleges defraud them so? I would feel more complicit were it not for the fact that I, too, am getting fucked by the system as much as it possibly can fuck me.
States are giving schools significantly less money even though the number of students is increasing. Students are frightened or angry or psychopathic cheaters. The vending machines on campus are selling Coke or Pepsi for a dollar or more per can. And, jesus h, the petty fights between fucktard faculty members. Etc....
It was the stark contrast between my old naive experience as a student and what I see today. That's what did it. I had to lock myself in my office with the light off for an hour or so.
Q. What's the thing that brings you down? What is that devastating thing? What thing will not, and should not, ever be forgiven? What is it that makes you hang your head low, stare at your feet, and want to deny being part of it all?
A. Say it. Be true.
How about my sneaking suspicion that the ownership class in the United States has become too powerful in the past 30 years, that this crummy economy and ever-decreasing support of education at all levels suits them fine because they need obedient workers and also because their children are all going to be in the elite in a very unequal society, and that Amercian society has become too corrupt, education has become too dumbed down, and that the American people don’t care, as long as American Idol is on TV, for there to be any chance of averting becoming a society that closely resembles Brave New World, except for the biotech and drugs being officially OK?
ReplyDeleteHonestly, what do you think Thomas Jefferson would have made of Glenn Beck? That anyone could take that idiot seriously even for a moment speaks astonishingly badly of how low we’ve sunk, and it’s all our own damn fault?
How about: the battle with climate change is lost, it’s just a matter of time before chronic drought ends the Great Plains as the bread basket of the world, and before California’s Central Valley turns back into desert, since salt has gotten into the water table because of rising sea levels?
How about: it’s also just a matter of time before, because I made vain attempts at teaching evolooshun, the Big Bang, lots more of “that science stuff,” and critical thinking, and also because the raids on my office and home turned up books they didn't like, a slavering crowd of President Palin supporters are slipping a noose around my neck?
That devastating enough for you? Say, it's not as bad as that nuclear war I was scared that Ron Reagan was going to cause, when I was an undergraduate.
And now, my niece's 9-year-old son wants to become an astronomer. I wonder whether it wouldn't be more responsible for me to encourage him to take drugs.
Why do the colleges defraud the students so? It would be quite impossible without their full complicity, and in fact their enthusiastic participation. It has always been possible to get a good education in my class. Anytime I start feeling sorry for the students, one will do something so childish that I will instantly recognize them as very much part of the problem.
ReplyDeleteFroderick, your first paragraph sums up everything I've been saying for the last few years. It's an oligarchy (or plutocracy, if you like), and deliberately dumbing down the population plays into their genuinely evil agenda.
ReplyDeleteOn my worst days, when the cynic in me cannot be silenced, the realization of this brings me close to weeping.
That, Southern Bubba, is what brings me down.
It varies, but right now, it's the fact that skills that I once insisted (against occasional student resistance, but with full support from colleagues) are simply "what we do in college" are now apparently "what we do in grad school," and most colleagues seem content with that, despite the fact that the students are still perfectly capable of (but, yes, still sometimes resistant to) learning said skills. Also, the extent to which what we teach, at least in comp classes, seems to be driven by the textbook/library "product" industrial complex, and what it can most easily produce/make a profit from.
ReplyDeleteUnderlying that, there's the fact that so many gen ed classes are now taught by non-TT faculty for whom service isn't part of the job, so, when it's time to change something, there isn't the same sort of real, start-from-the-beginning conversation among colleagues about what we're doing now, what's working, what isn't, what we want to accomplish, etc. that I see -- and see the products of -- when I attend department meetings. Instead, we're brought in in the middle of the conversation, if at all, and end up trying to help carry out a plan that someone else has devised. That's not all bad, especially if the person who devised the plan is good (and, in our case, that person is), but no plan devised by a single person -- let alone a person who teaches the course under very different conditions than the majority of instructors do -- is going to be as good as one devised by a group of people who teach the course under average conditions. For my program, at least, faculty governance, in the grass-roots the-faculty-determine-what's-in-the-curriculum sense, is dead.
Also, the fact that most of my students are too busy working for money to pay tuition to get the full benefit of what they're paying for with that tuition.
And, underlying all of the above, much of what Frod said. The educational infrastructure, like the physical one, is crumbling, and nobody is willing to invest in the parts that matter (though we've got lots of shiny new buildings on campus, and big conduits for computer/telecom cables, and all that easily-quantifiable/easily visible stuff).
[Frod's post was complete, in terms of what I was thinking after I saw Southern Bubba's question. But... I'll put my two euros in anyway,]
ReplyDeleteIf there is ONE thing in the ivy halls that brings me down, it's the constant barrage of nonsense from politicians and college administrations thinking they can/will increase the college population (butts-in-seats) and educate them all... when many students either had inadequate K-12 experiences OR do not have the capability of higher level work... with decreasing or inadequate funds.
We do not live in a "Brave New World" world, but we do have academic Alpha Pluses, as well as academic Epsilons. That's not a popular sentiment, but it's reality.
****The cynicism of some of my colleagues and their obsession with playing the grant game and bowing to political whims.
ReplyDelete****Colleagues who obsess about being 'entrepreneurial' (which basically means fiddling the books, as far as I can see)
****The disorganisation that passes as 'leadership' around this place, and in UK HE in general.
****How badly the students are let down by the school system, and by a culture obsessed with quick fix gratification at the expense of anything that takes a little work.
****Colleagues who blame the students for all the problems, as if they are all the same, and who indulge in inverse snobbery about other universities (as in, Ivy League places are full of crap teachers because their students are easy to teach. We get bad results because although we are great teachers, our students are thick and lazy).
****The assumption that if the US system does something it must be good and we must start doing it.
****The ConDem government's phenomenal ability at DoubleThink.
I still think there are things to value and appreciate about academia, but it's an increasingly hard row to hoe at the moment.
And Coke here is £1-10 a tin (that's about $1-80).
I live and teach in Wisconsin. If I wasn't on meds already, I'd be looking for a doctor. Even on meds, I was reduced to tears earlier this week (like, right after the Dread Scott Walker announced the biennial budget).
ReplyDeleteFrod said it first, and best. I don't know how much longer I can stay in academe.
What brings me down? How about realizing I first heard the phrase "do more with less" in 1978.
ReplyDeleteThe commercialization of academe.
ReplyDeleteThe increasing lack of respect for any discipline that isn't directly related to job training. Around here we're suddenly supposed to be "mobilizing knowledge". If we're not "mobilizing knowledge" we are, apparently, doing nothing of any value to society whatever. And "mobilizing knowledge" doesn't mean "teaching the kids something about Beowulf, so now they know a little more about how to read a medieval epic" (say). It means "how can something you teach be used to immediately make pots of money?" This is not what I signed up to be an academic for. It's what I signed up to AVOID.
The fact that 1/3 of my discipline, in Canada, is adjunct, and that doesn't look likely to ever change, except for the worse. The universities and the government have succeeded in creating a permanent underclass and see no problem with that at all.
It's fun to complain about how bad things are, and there are certainly a vast number of issues facing the world today. However, it is still important to keep perspective, and resist falling into the trap of nostalgia.
ReplyDelete"Honestly, what do you think Thomas Jefferson would have made of Glenn Beck? That anyone could take that idiot seriously even for a moment speaks astonishingly badly of how low we’ve sunk, and it’s all our own damn fault?"
He would probably recognize him as the modern-day equivalent to his friend Philip Freneau. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_National_Gazette)
"How about: it’s also just a matter of time before, because I made vain attempts at teaching evolooshun, the Big Bang, lots more of “that science stuff,” and critical thinking, and also because the raids on my office and home turned up books they didn't like, a slavering crowd of President Palin supporters are slipping a noose around my neck?"
Are there any instances of violence or credible threats of violence against science educators for teaching evolution or cosmology, or of politicians encouraging such violence? If so, I would like to see the reports. Otherwise, I think you are making too big a leap from "some people try to get creationism taught alongside evolutionism, and usually fail" to "I'm going to be lynched."
"ever-decreasing support of education at all levels suits"
"Ever" implies that this has been going on for some time. By what measure and for how long has support for education decreased?
I think I'm going to consider the private sector, is all I'm going to say. (Assuming there is one.)
ReplyDelete@Captain...No one has threatened to lynch me, but the harrassing phone calls start every term after the first lesson on evolution.
ReplyDelete@Cassandra...I teach Gen Ed Intro to Everything classes, and I love teaching them b/c the kids are still swinging between "deeeeerrrrr I'm in college" and "OMG THIS IS SO AWESOME" phase. (Later the "deeerrrrrr" stage takes over.) I would be totally psyched to be TT. Hire me! Hire me! Hell, I'll even teach the little twits to write!
...although...I'm guessing your 'contingent' status might not make you much better off than I am in this regard...
The biggest soul-crusher is my student loans. I understand that these are 'my own fault.' I mean, aside from the staggering medical bills problem that caused me to take the loans in the first place. But no matter how they got there, jesus christ the loans.
The second-biggest is a sense that I have NO IDEA what's going on in their little noggins. NO IDEA. Are they learning? Could be. Could also be that I am simply stirring the pot of oatmeal that passes for their brains into a larger glutinous mass.
The idea that if they can look it up, they shouldn't have to memorize it.
ReplyDeleteThe idea that if it's boring, then they are too smart to be doing it.
The idea that if they have gotten only A's in the past, then they should never get anything else, no matter what. (I just had someone say they hoped my classed wouldn't mess up their "nearly" 4.0)
The idea that a liberal education is a waste of time because a truck driver/janitor/accountant doesn't need to know writing, philosophy, literature, history or science. Doesn't matter that these are all VOTERS bombarded with faux media information related to all aspects of learning and critical thinking that affect everyone's fucking life.
The ideas of whole language and new math.
The idea that better retention = more learning.
The idea that online classes are easier and more convenient. HA HA HA HA HA HAAAAA HAH.
Those are a few of my favorite things...
I think a lot of teachers are just plain tired. I know I am. I had some great times in the 90's even dealing with poorly prepared students with crappy attitudes. But after a couple of decades of things just getting worse, dumbing down information in college to the 7th grade level, administration shifts to the customer a.k.a. the student is always right and students becoming more rude....or, wait, maybe I'm just too old for this shit??
Here comes the Sun, doo-n-doo-doo
Here comes the Sun.... 'n I say
It's all right (do-doodle-n-doodle-n-doodle-n, doo-doo-doo-doo)
thanks Bubba. Feel much better now!
@Captain:
ReplyDelete"'Ever' implies that this has been going on for some time. By what measure and for how long has support for education decreased?"
How about Proposition 13? How about my university, facing an 18% cut next year, after 5-10% cuts each of the past four years? We'll be getting the same budget as we did in '98-'99, with 30% more students. Is that quantitative enough for you?
"Are there any instances of violence or credible threats of violence against science educators for teaching evolution or cosmology..."
How about Paul Mirecki? I get yelled at about twice a year for this, so it's not such a leap to me. What do I have to do, get stitches?
@ BlackDog
ReplyDeleteThere is a website called studentloanjustice.org; it's mostly for people who have been scammed by the loan companies to complain about how they were. Student loan debt has outstripped credit-card debt in the US and we may see this bubble burst shortly because 40% of the loans are in default. There are people literally living like nomads in the US to avoid collections agencies like Van Ru, who have been contracted out by Sallie Mae to get that debt. Worse yet, there are people being harrassed by the Department of Education to pay for loans that were paid off years prior! The business behind education is destroying both quality education in America and the financial arm of the US economy.
How about the gaping hole where a sense of personal responsibility use to reside? And the fact that our students (and, sadly, many of "the rest of us") are shovelling it full of a sense of personal entitlement?
ReplyDeleteSigh.
I'm drunk. I've been drinking all evening.
ReplyDeleteJust staring at the computer, wondering if there is a solution.
Neither laughing nor crying.
Stunned.
I asked for truth; you wrote.
Genuine misery.
All of the above...
ReplyDeleteYes to all except the trolls. What gets me down the most is the apparently genuine surprise that it's not okay to copy from Wikipedia even if it's "just homework."
ReplyDeleteActually, there is one thing worse. It's been happening since I started teaching 15 years ago. The particular entitlement of certain male students irks me every time. That they think they have talked their way into a full class just by telling me their story. That they think it's appropriate to question the syllabus; that it's appropriate to do in class; that they're so important and smart that the class exists just for them, so they can sit in front and answer every question I ask without waiting for me to call on anyone. Oh, I let them know early and often, but not with the smackdowns of my fantasy since I'm supposed to keep the classroom atmosphere open and relaxed.
And that the male students who are my age and older NEVER ONCE have called me "Professor" or "Dr." Sometimes they try to call me by my first name, and I tell them that I prefer my professional title. Then they simply call me nothing. They don't address me. For months. They just can't bear to acknowledge that a woman might have higher status than they do.
@Blackdog: Oh, yes, I'm definitely contingent (full-time and multi-year, but still very contingent) myself, and would also love to be TT. That was the nose-pressed-against-the-window-from-outside view of committee work, and, when committee work starts looking good, you know the situation is bad (or the person peering in is a bit odd; probably both in this case). Things may look a little better through a misty window than they do from inside, I realize, but I've served on enough non-academic committees to know the downsides. I'd still argue that the only thing worse than being overwhelmed by committee work is not getting to do committee work, and hence have a voice, at all.
ReplyDeleteI spend all of my time teaching them to write (with a bit of reading and critical thinking thrown in), and, I, too, actually like it. It's the possibility that dumbing-down is becoming the inevitable response to how the classes I teach are staffed that's getting me down -- and that's absolutely not a criticism of the people doing the teaching, just the conditions under which they/we teach.
Come to think of it, that's another thing that gets me down: the need to balance saying "our work conditions are totally ridiculous, and don't allow us to do our best" with saying "but of course we're doing very well nevertheless," since the reply to the former tends to be (and I've been told this almost verbatim): "well, so-and-so seems to be doing just fine; why don't you talk to him/her and get some tips" -- when in fact I know that so-and-so is equally overwhelmed, but putting on a more cheerful face; or has given up on having a life that involves anything *but* teaching; or (much more rarely) has checked out but gets good evals thanks to assigning minimal work and giving good grades.
>What's the thing that brings you down? What is that devastating thing?
ReplyDeleteThe fact that I give a shit. I want to do a good job. I want my students to be prepared for their careers and their civic lives. I love doing research. Clearly, however, some of my colleagues do not give a shit about either of these things.
>What thing will not, and should not, ever be forgiven? What is it that makes you hang your head low, stare at your feet, and want to deny being part of it all?
That the don't-give-a-shit colleagues get paid the same as me and are effectively committing fraud. They make their classes easy in order to minimize time commitment; they don't do research once tenure is obtained. At a taxpayer supported school, they are the reason that people support politicians like Gov. Walker of Wisconsin. The fact that these colleagues seem to be less stressed out and seemingly unconcerned that they are committing fraud causes me to reach for the bottle.