Well, you're doing the right thing here. I've read most of the last few months of posts and I've been laughing and crying and hollering because you people are my real colleagues. I have spent four years feeling thirsty, parched, and this page has been like a cool drink of water.
Thank God I am not alone. I truthfully imagined I was the only professor in creation who felt like I did - not a soul where I work would dare say or even think the things you all write here.
I feel better about what I'm doing now knowing that I'm not alone. Thanks a 10 to the sixth power you marvelous renegades.
I have an afternoon class full of "snowflakes," and I'm going to melt them with some truth.
Math Man on board!
Welcome aboard, Math Man! We're so glad you found your real peeps. :)
ReplyDeleteWelcome baby! Kiss Kiss Kiss
ReplyDeleteThis site really is a great place to commiserate, ain't it!? Glad you found it!
ReplyDeleteYou know what annoys me? That not only can't I say some of this stuff to the people I work with, I can't say it to my non-academic friends. They'll bitch about their jobs all goddamned day, but I make *one* comment and suddenly it's all "Well, if you don't like it, just quit." Like, I've got to be a saint or something.
ReplyDeleteTeachers of all kinds, not just proffies, get this. Somehow, in many peoples' mind, being allowed the privilege to work with the next generation requires one to be a saint. And of course, they're expected to do it for $20k/year.
DeleteI wasn't the first to observe this: see "Generation X Goes to College," by Peter Sacks, published in 1996. Math Man may find it a good read, too. Welcome, Math Man!
It's the same with nurses, pharmacists, mothers...et al, we're supposed to smile all of the time and to be totally dedicated to our chosen professions 24/7. Giving and giving and GIVING and putting up with idiot admins and self-entitled snowflakes, all the while smiling and dancing like those birds and mice making Cinderella's first ball gown(according to Disney). Only to see it all destroyed.
DeleteAnd then we're still supposed to smile.
Welcome, Math Man! I remember well the day I found RYS. It was like dying and going to heaven. May this site live forever. (just a hint....to that end, you might want to bribe Les!----KIDDING.)
ReplyDeleteI think it's more like joining the Eternals from Zardoz.
DeleteMy impression was that this was more like joining Bela Oxmyx.
DeleteWelcome, Math Man. You are welcome here.
ReplyDeleteWilkommen, Bienvenue, welcome, come on in!
ReplyDeleteRock on, Math Man.
ReplyDeleteRock on.
I like the cut of your jib, good sir.
ReplyDeleteNot a soul where I work would dare say or even think the things you all write here.
ReplyDeleteExactly, and I am continually baffled by that (and it's even Tuesday). We all know the things we write about here are true almost everywhere, stably and generically. Yet my colleagues seem completely oblivious to it, it's like global warming to them (yeah, will be really bad for somebody else in the long run.)
So, welcome. Math has its own special brand of misery. Namely, we (mathematicians) are not really allowed to teach it (unless you're at Princeton or something). I wonder if others are aware of that. At the UG level, in the United States, we can only really do a parody of it, namely what students have come to know as "math" from their prior experience. Move an inch in the direction of presenting any mathematical topic as math, no matter how basic--and it's like a foreign language to them. They get to college mostly without ever having been exposed to a mathematical thought. (And I can see why, I teach people who plan to be high school math teachers, and it is not a pretty picture.)
Howdy to you, too.
ReplyDeleteWelcome!
ReplyDeleteWelcome! Leave the saint shit at home!
ReplyDeleteWith all the others, welcome, you!
ReplyDeleteWelcome! I found this website quite by accident, but did the binge-read thing. This place keeps me sane. I am lucky, I do have a couple of coworkers who also recognize snowflakery when they see it. However, I currently share my office with a gumdrop unicorn and I want to poke out my eardrums. All she ever says to her students is how hard they work and what a good job they are doing and heres a thousand points of extra credit and looky looky the average on the last intro exam was 89%!!! So, please vent your spleen here!
ReplyDeleteHail and welcome, Math Man!
ReplyDeleteSee? This is why no matter how dessicated and shrunken we may look/feel, this blog is necessary.
ReplyDeleteWelcome, Math Man. I myself stumbled across the site a couple years ago after finding and reading all of Rate Your Students and then discovering that College Misery existed as its successor. At the time, I was merely a downtrodden TA at my PhD institution given to regularly drowning my spouse in tales of teaching woes. The realization that my experiences were shared by others was a soothing balm for the soul, and that sense of solidarity has only served as motivation for fighting the good fight.
ReplyDeleteHowdy, Math Man!
ReplyDeleteI am hoping your moniker is a reference to Square One. Math man, math man, math man!
ReplyDeleteWelcome! You've landed in a good place. I couldn't survive my job without CM.
ReplyDelete