As a shiny new proffie, I was perhaps no more obnoxious than most, but surely full of myself. I remember the thinly veiled contempt all us young pup proffies had for Huffy Harry – a bitter, sour senior colleague who constantly accused us young pups of coddling the snowflakes, having low standards, and having no real commitment to the production of responsible adults from the precious, delicate crystallized water we had as raw material. How we rolled our eyes at him every time he started ranting. HE wasn’t doing real, cutting edge research, HE was just a teaching drone.Since he retired, my program’s enrollment and class sizes have quadrupled with constant faculty numbers. Adminiflakes tell us that our goal is to have greater than 90% retention, and there must be something wrong with US if the students can't learn from us. Mega State University has reorganized and reorganized and had all kinds of upper-admin interference in what should be academic decisions by the faculty. Yadda, yadda, yadda, it’s all been said here many times, and more amusingly, by others.
But the other day, another ‘older’ colleague and I, during an epic kvetching session, complaining about how our younger colleagues are coddling the snowflakes and have low standards (well, DUH, they’re not tenured yet) simultaneously looked at each other, and said, “Oh, lordy, we’ve turned into Huffy Harry!”
Huffy Harry, if you’re out there anywhere, you were right, and it’s only gotten worse, MUCH worse since your day. I am filled with remorse for how shabbily we treated you. We should raise a statue to you.
Great Zarquon forgive us.
No, you build a 1/2 scale version of the Palace of the Soviets, with a statue of Huffy Harry on the top in that Lenin pose, one arm reaching towards the Future, the other hanging on to his suit jacket.
ReplyDeleteBUILD NO DOME WITHIN THE BUILDING, AND THE BASE CAN HANDLE THE WEIGHT.
This is a great post! Nice work, Horrible Meanie. Isn't it something that we keep learning?!?!
ReplyDeleteHuffy Harry, I salute you, too.
I had a mentor very early in my career, a complete dunce.
By the time he was dead and I was mid career, I realized he was a genius. Argh.
Cool post, Meanie. Makes me think that my kvetching will one day be seen as genius by the junior faculty here. Of course I'll probably be in a box.
ReplyDeleteI'll raise one to the Huffy one later today! I realized last year why so many of my more advanced colleagues were as bitter as they were. I'm with them now.
ReplyDeletedoes it have to be that way? is the bitterness always inevitable? should i try to resist it or just give in?
ReplyDelete"is the bitterness always inevitable?"
DeleteNot if you replace it with rage.
I found myself starting to say, "When I was a new professor," and promptly clamped my mouth shut because I didn't want to be our version of Huffy Harry. For now, I'm denial about it.
ReplyDeleteMy case is quite different. From the beginning, I was known for being tough, and for pushing students. My elders had drunk the Kool-Aid, though, so instead of encouraging me, they did everything they possibly could to undermine what I did. One yelled at me for "not caring about students' feelings," and insisted that "less is more" and that the teacher was wholly responsible for student learning. This was also the one who thought that junior faculty were the subjects of some kind of fraternity initiation he was all too clearly delighted to mete out. I can't imagine ever having a realization about them and especially him like you had about Huffy Harry. I already AM Huffy Harry, and goddamn proud of it!
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteAh, but I still am active in research!
DeleteSo, when I get to the Restaurant at the End of the Universe, I can look the Great Zarquon straight in the eye and say, "OK, I did my bit. Jeez Louise, was it a struggle!"
DeleteOr maybe I can't. All that bad mentoring inculcated in me sloppy habits that I am ashamed to admit I haven't fully exorcised. But then, the bar has been set too high (or low, depending on how you look at it): I've been yelled at for telling a kid "Do your own homework."