What's the point?

I'm an adjunct who was elevated to the rank of lecturer for one year to fill in for a colleague who is on sabbatical. I teach twice as many courses as tenure-track faculty members for less money and get all the undesirable time slots. Such is my fate, and it beats unemployment.

One of my responsibilities is to attend faculty meetings although I'm not supposed to say anything so I don't. At last week's meeting, we discussed retention for the umpteenth time and the need for greater student involvement. Most of our students have grandiose career goals, which they have no hope of achieving so I see their failure to re-enroll as coming into the light. It bugs me no end that we talk endlessly about retention yet no one can be bothered to survey the students who failed to re-enroll. We're probably talking about a hundred people. I'd be willing to call ten or even 20.

Someone suggested that incorporating more small group projects into one of the Intro courses

I teach will foster connections and improve retention. I think it's just as likely to annoy students who find themselves compensating for non-performers. Again, I'm not supposed to say anything because I'm the temporary help but this strikes me as a very amateurish approach to a complex problem. There's no attempt to investigate the reasons people aren't returning--lack of money, poor job prospects, dissatisfaction with classes, change of career direction--or come up with measurable solutions.

My sense is that the faculty doesn't want to address the problem; it wants to be seen as addressing the problem.

Raul from Russellville is Ready to Give Up. What To Do When You Feel Your Career Has Been a Mistake.

Since I sent in that first grad school application, I've been consumed by becoming a college professor. It took me 7 years to get my MA and PhD, and all during that I TA'd and taught classes, and did other odd jobs to pay the bills. (I was especially good at telephone sales for some reason!)

I got married right after the PhD while doing a postdoc job. And then after another year of postdoc work I got my first tenure track job that started in September of last year.

I struggled in that first semester, but worked hard through it. I was astonished at the students, how exquisitely dumb they were, how fantastically lazy, how creatively they avoided work. It was something I never noticed much as a TA. Back then I was working on my own classes. The undergrads I met were just elements or obstacles to deal with and get out of the way. But now, somehow, as they are the largest part of my job, I find myself mystified by them and their lack of sense.

I spoke to some colleagues about this - in general terms - after the fall term, and to a person they said, "This is what it's like. You must find career satisfaction somewhere other than through the students." I talked to my grad school advisors and colleagues, and found that they had similar advice. Some seemed to have better students than I did; some seemed more prepared for what they faced in their first jobs.

But somehow the entire illusion I had about the career has disappeared.

It is not just the students. My colleagues are closed off. My attempts to be collegial are often rebuffed or ignored. I haven't come in expecting to be beloved or anything, but I find that I'm just ignored, left to fend for myself. They are pleasant in a distant way, but there is no camaraderie, and I notice in other departments it appears the same.

I don't want this to sound like a pity party. I want to honestly express that this career is not at all what I thought it was. Was I naive? I suppose so. I had a romantic feeling about the life of a college professor, the so called life of the mind. But it's just drudgery, long hours, relatively mediocre pay, and a feeling that what I do doesn't have any meaning.

My students work harder at avoiding work than at anything I assign them. And even though they vex me, my main feeling about them is just disinterest. I don't even get mad at them. I just think to myself, "Why would I want to teach these lazy fucks?"

But how do I walk away from this now? For the better part of a decade my whole goal has to become this thing, a thing I clearly didn't understand or get prepared for. I think all day, every day, about quitting in May. How do I tell my wife, my friends, my family. What do I say when I quit? "I'm sorry; it wasn't what I thought it would be."

I feel shame about this. I feel stupid. How could I not know? I just want to say "stop" to the whole thing.

Funny Yahoo Answers Question

I just stumbled across this and spit chocolate milk on my new laptop.  I might just be easy when it comes to humor, but I wanted to share:

Is it safe for Americans to...