
Why I’m No Longer a Professor - phreanix
http://johncbeck.tumblr.com/post/89890392397/why-im-no-longer-a-professor
======
fortawesome
This is, in fact, happening when the stakes are much higher - in hospitals.

The UT Southwestern Medical Center is driven by residents' evaluations of
their supervisors, and routinely operate on patients with absolutely no
supervision present. The actual doctors are afraid of getting poor reviews and
killing their chances for advancement, as has happened to their peers. So the
residents do as they wish, often at great risk and harm to the patient.

I unfortunately have experience with this facility. My brother-in-law was
operated on by their residents for a routine removal of a skin graft. Their
supervisor (one of the faculty members mentioned in the article linked below)
was not present. My brother-in-law received 5 holes in his intestines and was
unable to eat for 12 months, surviving on TPN alone. The Mayo Clinic finally
resected his bowels, leaving him questionably enough intestines for a normal
life. Sadly, for state-affiliated medical facilities in Texas, there is little
recourse after the fact. The state has limited damages in such a way that no
attorney was interested in the case.

More details here: [http://www.dallasnews.com/news/community-
news/dallas/headlin...](http://www.dallasnews.com/news/community-
news/dallas/headlines/20100801-ut-southwestern-faculty-let-unsupervised-
resident-doctors-operate-at-parkland-.ece)

------
spaldingwell
I'm 27 years old, I have a high income and I really enjoy higher education. At
this point I don't care about getting my MA. I just really enjoy education for
educations sake.

But I don't feel like there are many places for me to go- auditing courses is
the best I've come up with.

I'm sure I'm not the only person who has this "demand" ... I just wish there
was a way to connect the supply and demand in a better way :)

~~~
pessimizer
I do, too. I don't care about their stupid pieces of paper - I just want to
learn more things.

There's been a lot of ink spilled lately about ending the expectation that
everyone should go to college. I'd like to see more about how everybody is
expected to stop learning after that, unless they're looking for more degrees
(or the ubiquitous MBA in marketing/finance), and _especially_ if they have a
good job.

I think that the main reason is because a la carte education would collapse
its awful pricing structure. Having the majority of your student body not tied
to your university for their entire future would end up confusing and
improving a lot of things IMO. I'd love to shop by professor, and arbitrarily
retake courses of study in my adult life if I feel I'm getting rusty.

~~~
bkcooper
_I 'd like to see more about how everybody is expected to stop learning after
that, unless they're looking for more degrees . . . ._

Who has this expectation? To me your perspective is weird because it suggests
that if you're not taking classes you're not learning. And I would say that I
often see arguments for college along the lines of it helping you "learn how
to learn" on your own.

~~~
eli_gottlieb
It is actually harder to learn on your own if you don't have a set curriculum
(that is, a dependency graph on academic subjects) and a guide to finding good
materials (textbooks and such). Emphasis on the dependency graph: without one,
it's far too easy to dive into something, get well over your head, and wind up
more confused and frustrated than enlightened. This _especially_ happens in
the kind of deep, difficult subjects where you need the guidance of a good
textbook or professor _more_ , because not every teacher in the field actually
knows the particular subfield.

------
jestinjoy1
"When I joined another institution that emphasized course evaluations, I saw
that as an excellent sign of a more student-focused organization. Promotion
and pay were based on achieving the highest student satisfaction ratings. But,
I soon learned that statistically insignificant differences in evaluation
scores determined wildly divergent financial remuneration. Savvy colleagues
whispered that the quickest path to money was to never give students frank
feedback: “flatter and never find fault.” Or, better yet, don’t give any
feedback at all until the student evaluations are turned in: “entertain them,
then give one big final exam or final paper.” "

I am a teacher in Higher Education in India and this is what I am experiencing
now. If I give good grades to students and entertain them they will give good
feedback and that will in turn fetch me more incentives. No need to teach
students anything.

Teaching is something that can be enjoyed but if it get worse, you cant find a
job worst than this.

~~~
javajosh
Teachers _should_ be judged based on student evaluations - but those
evaluations should be deferred until, oh, 10 years later when students can
honestly and dispassionately answer the question: "did that teacher enrich my
life, prepare me for the livelihood I'm actually earning today?"

Of course, administrations can't wait 10 years for feedback, more's the pity.

~~~
RussianCow
Not to mention I'm not going to remember any of my professors in 10 years.

~~~
kbenson
You might be surprised. The teachers that taught you relevant things that you
end up using over and over tend to be remembered in my experience.

Of course some courses lend themselves to imparting this information better
than others, and if you end up in fields other than your major there may be
less chances to find your learning useful.

~~~
watwut
But then you are evaluating class he was assigned to teach and its relevance
to your career, not his teaching. I did not used whatever I learned about
networking or cryptography much, but that does not mean those teachers were
bad. Nor does it mean CS major should not contain those classes.

~~~
6d0debc071
So those people will only get the feedback from the people who went on to use
their knowledge. That sounds fair enough to me. :/

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webhat
Interesting to read this piece[1] by the same author.

 _For the first time in my career, I understand why I’m so nervous and
irritable every time I walk into a classroom. In my own small way—in the only
way I personally will ever be able to comprehend it—I am feeling the burden of
preparing the next generation of humans to be more humane and better
individuals. It is an awesome responsibility. But it is also why I’m a
teacher._

1\. [http://www.hult.edu/ja-jp/news/blogs/2012/july/why-im-a-
teac...](http://www.hult.edu/ja-jp/news/blogs/2012/july/why-im-a-teacher-by-
john-c-beck/)

------
greggman
Whenever I think about teaching I generally assume I'll run into similar
problems. Teaching apparently has tons of politics and strict rules.

The only thing I could think of is starting my own school but I haven't gotten
myself to make that jump yet.

~~~
n0rm
When you try to get it accredited, you'll have a better understanding of the
problem.

Only when you threaten to rock the boat do the esteemed gentlemen show their
mafia qualities.

~~~
webhat
I beg to differ, we are in the process of getting accredited and I have yet to
find a horses head in my bed. ;)

------
deong
I guess I've been fortunate to have not encountered these particular
pathologies. Certainly student evaluations are important, but every chair/dean
I've dealt with has known enough to know how to read evaluations to weed out
the honest feedback from the merely disgruntled or those just happy to not
have to work too hard.

My complaints are generally that teaching evaluations don't matter enough. I
like teaching, and I'm good at it, but you can only afford to be as good as
you can be in the 20% of your time you can carve out of the grant-writing
budget to devote to students. Spend too much time teaching and it won't matter
how much the students learn.

------
Estragon

      I saw a news article about suicides among 50-something men
      in the US going up by 50%.  
    

I'm curious, is this statistically significant? I'm having trouble finding
information about the variance of suicide rates.

~~~
hluska
This information comes from a report by the Center for Disease Control and
Prevention. I can't find the report itself, but it is referenced here:

[http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/health-jan-
june13-suicide_05-...](http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/health-jan-
june13-suicide_05-03/)

Edit - I found the report moments after posting that link. Here it is:

[http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm6217a1.htm?mobile...](http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm6217a1.htm?mobile=nocontent&s_cid=mm6217a1_w)

~~~
Estragon
Thanks.

------
Netcob
In CS, I loved most of the practical assignments/projects. Especially those
where students had some freedom to come up with creative solutions. Even
having things go wrong was fun now and then when it ended up teaching me that
I could think on my feet and come up with a solution on the spot.

Sitting in a huge room, copying things off of a blackboard or simply trying to
stay awake watching one slide after the other (usually stuffed with text so
that you had to choose between listening to the professor or reading the
slide) wasn't fun at all.

I can program just for the fun of it, but I have a hard time learning just to
learn something new. Wish it wasn't like that, but it is. So when I learn it's
more like this:

1\. I learn about new tools that I can use to make things

2\. I pick one or two and try to do something

3\. I get stuck, but I have a much better understanding of the problems
involved now

Now that's the point at which I'd like to be able to talk to a teacher and get
back to #1, but this time on a higher level. I need to "play" with knowledge
in order to understand it.

~~~
restless
"trying to stay awake watching one slide after the other" these I hated the
most the PowerPointProfs and in their exams question where like "name 6 things
of something" where they wanted to have the things listed from their
presentation and only their presentation.

------
drdeadringer
I got to the part of "It wasn't giving me joy anymore" and, well... that
accounts for a large portion of why anybody is no longer [fill_in_blank]. I
believe circumstances make up most of the rest.

~~~
petercooper
The first part of what you say is true, but that can result from systemic
deficiencies or incompatibilities, which was the case here.

Education is notorious for having people quit due to feeling disillusioned,
constrained, or opposed by the systems around it. The National Association of
Schoolmasters Union of Women Teachers in the UK did a survey of its members in
2013 and found 84% felt demoralized with 50% having considered quitting the
profession entirely in the past 12 months.

~~~
drdeadringer
> people quit due to feeling disillusioned, constrained, or opposed by the
> systems around it

I think this happens more than just in education, but I can believe that
education has a healthy stake.

------
rawland
Good education is politically discouraged.

That is my impression, too. It is very very disappointing, as I am at the
beginning of the trajectory John C. Beck just ended. His decision and words do
not surprise me a bit...

I didn't find out why, yet. The gist of my current theory is, that this
crumbles down from old minds in politics getting more and more detached from
what is actually happening in and around the {academe/increasingly digital}
world.

~~~
jqm
Have you ever watched George Carlin's bit on why education is so bad in the
US?

[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AMqJvhmD5Yg](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AMqJvhmD5Yg)

Of course Carlin is a comedian and there is no evidence (that I am aware of)
of a conspiracy to dumb down education. I think it's probably more of a case
of a noxious wilting blight disease called bureaucracy. Education certainly
isn't the only institution stunted and crippled by this infection either.

The bottom line is... if you want a good rounded education, you are going to
have to do it yourself. An institution might help with this but isn't going to
be the whole answer...and, they are becoming less helpful it seems. Although
there are no doubt some corners of the academic world that have so far proved
resistant to bureaucratic blight... these are becoming less and less frequent.

------
n0rm
Disengaging from yesteryear's institutions is not going to help them.

Best way is to force them to adapt. MOOCs seem to be the thing that will make
education assess its business practices.

I wish I didn't have to refer to education as a business, but alas, the idea
that you can fine-tune any organization through business cases has been
perpetuated.

~~~
sj4nz
By MOOC you mean "Massive open online course" I assume?

~~~
n0rm
Yes.

A diploma from a prestigious university only means you can go through better
gilded doors. After that, your measure is how much money you helped your
employer make.

After a while, the metric becomes what you've done (in the past) to prove your
worth.

If MOOCs are taken seriously, and can compete with prestigious diplomas when
it comes to that first job, then you've got a game changer.

Sadly, the only way to make a business (again, pains me to say that) pay
attention is if they lose money.

~~~
walshemj
yes right so you get to work a MC Job instead of a good one - not exactly a
endorsement for MOOCs is it.

You go to Oxbridge/ivy league universities for the contacts not just the piece
of paper

~~~
n0rm
Exactly. You should be learning things in college, not kissing ass. That's the
very definition of the downward spiral education is in.

Those contacts you make in big-name schools are mostly wishful thinking. Those
places don't train you to be a friend. They train you to be ruthless,
efficient "winners".

Make your FU money and bail. Nietzsche explained why;

> He who fights with monsters should look to it that he himself does not
> become a monster. And when you gaze long into an abyss the abyss also gazes
> into you.

p.s. a white collar mcjob makes more than an adjunct "professor".

~~~
walshemj
er no I don't think you understand the advantage that going to a good school
and the a top 10 University can bring.

Going to eaton then oxford and the bullingdon club opens far more doors look
at the UK Cabinet.

Do you think Pres Obahma would he be where he is today without going to
Harvard and had just a community organizer with just a local Chicago high
school education.

~~~
n0rm
Do you really think Obama is where he is today out of merit?

He won't rock the boat. He won't go JFK on people and cause a ruckus.

Do you really believe an upper-middle-class lawyer can breeze past the multi-
billionaires?

Look at what's happening in Detroit. Who the scapegoat is for the downfall of
an entire city.

------
jccalhoun
As someone who just got my phd I haven't experienced any of this kind of
stuff. I think it has a lot to do with his field or that he has been away from
the US system for a while.

------
adamzerner
Education is essentially a business.

You seem to think it's a broken one (so do I).

You're a savvy business man.

Change it!

