By Dr. Jim Giermanski
We often hear from those in business, medicine, law, and other pragmatic professions that college professors live in an ivory tower, don’t know what a day’s work really is, and are fundamentally spoiled by their positions of influence and their academic degrees. As a former professor who worked at state universities and smaller private colleges for 30 years, I agree. Moreover, I think it is time that we treated professors in different teaching areas differently.
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"Most professors don’t work 40-hour weeks, and being a professor is easy and pleasurable work, with minimum demands and maximum benefits."
ReplyDeleteYeah, that's it.
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DeleteOhh, such nice benefits! Such as starving over summer break!
DeleteActually, there is some truth here. Lord knows I haven't worked a 40-hour week in academia in years. It's at least 60, and those are just the sober hours.
DeleteStill, there are days when it is pleasurable work. Just not always enough to offset the days that suck raw turd.
...."such as good salaries, tenure, deference, and the historic use of ornate regalia and titles"...
DeleteNOW I get it! One of my benefits is to wear a black robe in 80+ degree heat! How could I have missed that?
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DeleteThat line gave me the best laugh I've had in weeks. Especially the bit about "deference."
DeleteJesus H on a cracker ... this crap again?
ReplyDeleteLove how Bad-ass Business prof is able to dismiss even the "pragmatic" disciplines as being divorced from the "real world."
This "everything should be run like a business" crap has got to stop. Every human venture cannot be distilled to a profit/loss balance sheet.
I do not know of many business professors who were strictly theoretical.
I certainly do not know of any medical school professors who do not actively practice the surgical techniques they are teaching.
And the practice of psychology is defined BY peer-reviewed research, not publication in "real world" magazines. That's just what we need, therapy driven by Reader's Digest bromides.
And again with the "liberal indoctrination" crap?
This guy said he taught for 30+ years yet he remained conservative enough to reflexively hate all academia and publish in the Daily Caller a "news" publication so red one of its featured sections is "Guns and Gear".
Being in a medical field, I can tell you that clinic work is actually mandated in my contract.
DeleteJim Giermanski is a fucktard.
ReplyDeleteI apologize. That was a mean thing to say. I don't know Jim Giermanski. He might be a wonderful person.
DeleteBut this op-ed piece Jim Giermanski wrote is fucktarded.
Bubba, I am dead certain he is not a wonderful person. I will call him a douche and not apologize.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite part is the suggestion that wearing my $600 polyester regalia twice a year is a "maximum benefit" of being a professor.
ReplyDeleteI would love to skip the ridiculous regalia!
DeleteWhile sweating in the hot Sun during a graduation ceremony in 100 degree F June weather, the thought occurred to me that regalia make a lot more sense in Oxford, which is perpetually cool and damp. It's easily the least practical outfit I have: every time I put on the hood, I think of Isadora Duncan.
DeleteI laughed when I saw the word "influence". They must not be referring to part-timers.
ReplyDelete....we could end up with a college professor who taught law at the University of Chicago but never argued a case in front of a judge becoming the president of the United States...
ReplyDeleteWay to show the flaws in your position, dude!
Indeed. He appears to believe that the only reason for getting a law degree is to practice trial law (presumably for a high fee, though I have the impression that many of the highest-paid lawyers spent relatively little time in the courtroom; if anything, their goal is to keep their clients *out* of court). Even if one is scornful of community organizing (using the existing law to benefit others, and perhaps lobbying for changes when necessary), since when is becoming a legislator (state and then federal) an inappropriate use of a law degree? While I certainly don't think having a law degree should be a prerequisite for writing laws, it can't hurt to have lawyers participating in the process.
DeleteOh, where to begin.
ReplyDelete"the historic use of ornate regalia"
Why yes, getting up at 8 am on a Saturday for May graduation is a high point of the academic year.
Having looked at the guy's website, actually this might be true for him.
DeleteConsidering that at least one parent always congratulates me for graduating every year when I wear my ornate regalia, I'd say that's definitely THE highlight of my job and I should STFU about any other complaints because I am required to wear regalia once or twice a year....
DeleteI haven't got the $900 to blow on regalia.
DeleteObvious trolling effort. I'm sure his colleagues were sorry to see him leave.
ReplyDeleteJesus Christ on a cracker. What a fucking asshole. Another "those who can't, teach" piece of shit cluttering up the InterTubez.
ReplyDeleteFuck this guy. I'm sorry I wasted my time on this beautiful June day reading his hateful, stupid fucking crap.
Isn't this an argument for profs to be active in research, something that other fucktards (e.g. Marty Nemko, Hacker and Dreifus) have whined against?
ReplyDeleteFrod, I started to read this in those terms: be a practicioner of your field, so you can be a teacher who knows what you're talking about from direct experience. Not many chemists teach if they've only read the lab handouts but never touched a test tube.
ReplyDeleteBut then, as so often happens, it became clear that the author is using a potentially valid point as an opportunity to jump off into the real agenda: hating on me.
Let's see . . . "good salary." Well, I'm middle class. Barely.
ReplyDelete"Tenure." Yes, finally. Of course, tenure really means a six year long job interview.
"Deference." Really? Golly, that would be nice. I can't even get my students to call me doctor, half the time.
"Historic use of ornate regalia and titles." Yeah, I revel in that shit. The fact that in the sixteenth century I would have been ordained and subject to ecclesiastical law just gets my nipples hard. History is an awesome perk.
As far as this fad of professors after retirement telling us all how lazy professors are, I have to wonder if it occurs to them that maybe, just maybe, *they* were just lazy. Yeah, it's summer, so I'm working only about three or four hours a day writing, researching, revising, and so on. But then when classes start, I'll be working nine to eleven hour days planning, reading, researching, writing, grading, teaching, meeting with students, meeting with my tea partying committees . . . How the hell did these people have careers, and not do all that?
"What’s worse is that my former colleagues would vote for him."
ReplyDeleteHey, moron. Obama won a majority of the vote - that's how the election works, you see. The fact that your colleagues would vote for him puts them in the rarefied air of ... most people. Unintentionally, you are concluding that faculty are just like everybody else.
Hint to Dr. Giermanski from a junior/sophomore comp. instructor: when you start out an essay with a statement about a commonly-held belief, the standard (and effective) rhetorical move is to then go on to debunk or at least qualify that belief. I'd be willing to count your "I agree" gambit as a clever upsetting of readers' expectations in order to get their attention if you then went on to offer some new and enlightening evidence to confirm the belief, but, well, you don't. You just spout a bunch of other unsupported assertions (and show no awareness of how universities are actually staffed these days, or what most professors do). Depending on the assignment, this might be in C territory, but barely.
ReplyDeleteAlso, what everybody else said.
The hell of it is that, while this particular argument appears to be in bad faith, at best, there's a good case to be made that faculty should be not only engaged in public and professional work outside of teaching -- and I realize most of us are already -- but should let our students, colleagues and the general public know that. In fact, we should be pounding it into their heads every class, every Rotary meeting, every time we talk to a journalist, or student's parent.
ReplyDeleteBut we can't have that discussion because this Tea Partying yahoo wanted to get an "ivory tower" shot in on Obama.
"since professors rarely criticize the writings of their colleagues"
ReplyDeleteSeriously, what colour is the sky on this guy's planet?