orichalcum

So, I have just finished teaching my last class as a graduate student, my 11th, all told. As I grade the final exams, here are my thoughts on what I've learned. As a caveat straight off - I readily admit that the general state of graduate pedagogical instruction is shameful; we get almost none of the formal teaching that elementary or secondary school teachers do, for instance. However, Columbia did pretty well by me, although I had to learn a lot on the fly. Here's what I :came up with about teaching college students:



1. Values and Facets
College students believe, when they get to college at least, in absolutes: freedom, justice, truth, right and wrong. Part of my job is to teach them that the world is more complex than absolutes, and that life isn't a multiple-choice test. When we talk about opening up their minds, what we really mean is taking a hammer to their assumptions. This is threatening, and even scary.

      Perhaps this is the true association between "liberal" values and a "liberal" arts education. Liberalism, in the classical  sense, here means freedom of ideas and of thoughts. We need to teach them how to see the whole map and not just the linear road ahead. A conservative education would simply reinforce existing assumptions - why bother making the Biology major take history and music theory, for instance? However, it's crucial that we not mix this idea up with leftist and rightist ideologies. It's just as important for knee-jerk Democrat kids to learn that Republicans and evangelical Christians aren't all "nutcases" as it is for right-wing students to become aware that all coastal free-thinking Volvo-drivers aren't unpatriotic or immoral. And equally, that English majors aren't all lazy, and Econ Majors aren't all obsessed with making money, and Biology Majors aren't all obsessively hard-working recluses, and Comp Sci majors aren't all geeks.

      At the same time, there are dangers with just throwing a whole lot of different theories and facts at students and not providing a guide - blind multiculturalism, as it were. And also, most universities expect us to teach something called ethics, or at least an "ethical awareness." Does ethics mean a sense of Right and Wrong? Does it mean giving students the tools to make those judgements themselves, and how do we do that without preaching to them? Is it safe to establish extremes: Naziism is Bad; Caligula is Bad (and Maybe Mad); increased literacy and economic equality for women are Good?
I haven't learned the answers to these questions yet, but I've learned to be aware of them, and to watch my speech when I describe someone as a "good emperor" or when I assume that students share my views on women's rights.

2.  Be a Real Person, But Not Too Much of One.
    Students don't want to come to class to learn from a talking tape recorder, or a video. You have to interact with them, and be aware of them, and show that you know whether they are there and whether they're paying attention. You have to know their names -something I need to work hard on. You need to be sympathetic when they're having a bad day, but suspicious when they need to miss six classes to take care of their sick dog. At the same time, you need to work desperately hard to not let your personal opinions about them influence your grading. This part is tough.
    At the same time that you want to project the image of a compassionate, lively, aware human being, you need to maintain a distance. Students don't really want to hear about your kids, or your spouse, or how sick you were, and telling them so in excessive detail makes them uncomfortable and wastes time. Useful personal anecdotes or suggestions for learning material can be helpful, but should be limited. You need to have their respect and attention at all time.

Humor
3. Most college students are still at the stage where they take everything Very Seriously (except for the things they totally flake on.) Grades Matter to them, even though they really don't to you. They want to know what material is really important. You need to respect that, but also to smooth out the course with humor and entertainment, particularly with regard to tests and grading. Relaxing the students creates a much better class. The goal is not to stress your students out as much as possible and see which ones whimper first.

4. Logistics
Another thing I'm bad at, but I'm getting better. This semester has taught me the importance of the contract you make with your students - to teach what you say you're going to teach, on the day you said you were going to teach it. To show that you value the class as much as they do. To be consistent, and reliable, which are different virtues. To file everything properly, and have it easily accessible.

5. Classes have Personalities, and so do Days.
This is something I knew from theater, but it's even more true in a classroom context. Even if you've taught a class before, and even if all the individual students are marvels of brilliance and decorum, the class as a whole may be sullen, bored,resentful, or, for that matter, enthused, questioning, and assertive. Do what you can to foster a positive class personality, and then accept what you cannot change. Sometimes, you just get the classes which haven't had their coffee yet. There are times when you do the best with what you have. But you can never walk into that classroom and think, "I'm having a bad day. I'll just go through the motions," because, just like in gaming, the GM trumps. If the teacher is bored, everyone else will be too, no matter how cool the material is. You are always On. That's why teaching is so exhausting, for all of you out there who scorn my flexible-schedule summers-off lifestyle. Think of it as starring in a LARP or a new play, 6 times a week, 9 months a year, while also writing and researching constantly.

Now I've got the rest of my life to apply what I've learned. I hope it's enough. I still don't know much about the 3rd century CE, or the Dative of Reference, or how to read a papyrus, or good suggestions for freewriting. But they're going to call me a Professor, and I guess the improv skills will come in handy.