How to Build a Better Monster

Fantastic post, Kate! Oh yes -- there are plenty of horror stories out there in the blogosphere and you definitely should read them. But don't let the naysayers intimidate you; blogs often encourage narcisstically whining into the vast unknown, I think, and academics are notoriously cynical -- many have even made it into an artform. Plus you might recall the old dictum from our writing classes: "Only trouble is interesting!" A lot of those dark and dreary anecdotes are from writers who want to get their blogs an audience. Most teachers I know are more optimistic than the web reflects; you've gotta be something of a romantic to live the life of the mind and make the sacrifices it takes to get a teaching position. I suppose its obvious (and maybe polyanna of me) to say that there are plenty of joys to teaching. But I don't want to sound like someone out of Chicken Soup for the Teacher's Soul. In the end, don't forget that teaching is a "helping" profession at bottom, so it has the same range of pleasures and frustrations as any job where you deal daily with people in a potentially meaningful way on a face-to-face basis. And because it serves society in some small way, I think it's an honorable way to make a living!

I hope you'll keep a teacher's blog to track your entry into the profession once you arrive. Even if it's anonymous.

This reminds me: maybe near the tail end of your independent study we can look at some composition pedagogy articles that incorporate cultural studies.

Kate, I was especially taken by your comment "I’ve received a TON of experience dealing with all sorts of issues, many of which did not pertain to writing." I think that, for me at least, what happens outside of the curriculum is at least as important as what happens within it. I have been teaching for more than 20 years, and I have to say that what means the most to me, looking back, is not how I helped a student learn to write a research paper but how I listened when he found out his parents were divorcing or when she had a problem with her husband.

I wish you well as you move into the profession. I look forward to reading more in your blog.

Kate,
I confess to being one of those cynical blogging educators. For me, the blogosphere provides a nice way to vent with a community of peer. Take to heart Mike's assertion that academics are self-centered and inclined to criticism--analytical as well as the other kind. I've just begun a new life as a blogger; my past blogging identity was not fully anonymous, so I can't reconnect with my former self. Suffice it to say that I have written and will again write about the pure joy of teaching. I love my job more than anyone else I know, and I know it's right for me because even when I've had a disastrous class (my fault, their fault, no matter), it's a very short while until I am fully engaged in trying to make sure that the next class is good again.
So take the kvetching with ample salt. It's hard to be witty and earnest simultaneously--cynicism is more rhetorically flavorful.

Hi Kate,

Very thoughtful. I know that teaching can become very frustrating. Still, university teaching is the one profession that strikes just about everyone who sees it from the outside as attractive. And I would imagine that most of those on the inside feel that it is just as good as it seems. Even though I'm pushing three decades in the biz, I still get excited when I prepare classes and go stand in front of students. Of course, there is much more to it than that.

Kate, first time reader here.

Do you see any negative effects of these "warrior stories" on the public at large?

More specifically, will blogs that focus on the more interesting horror story instead of the more common "getting through" story further erode public confidence in our public education system?

Kate,

Many educators "vent" because there are so many aspects to this profession that make you feel powerless: students' backgrounds, lack of funding, lack of personal knowledge skills to handle things that come up, (unreasonable) expectations placed upon you from outside your small sphere.

But if you continue reading, you'll also notice that none of us are giving up and getting out. Perhaps we are all secretly masochists. Maybe we aren't bright enough to realize the plight we're in. My best guess is simply that we have a love of knowledge that is too strong to be broken. We just have to share it. We're addicted to seeing others get turned on by ideas.

Are there days (like today) that make me want to bang my head against the wall. You bet. But you know, I bet every hardworking soul---no matter what their career---has days like that. It is easier sometimes to blog about the "negative," because it gives you permission to let it go at that point. But those golden moments? Those are the ones you keep close to your heart.

Hang in there, kiddo. The Ivory Tower may be acquiring some tarnish, but she'll keep standing for you.

This might be special pleading, but one thing that Parker Palmer said in The Courage to Teach has always stuck with me. Good teachers almost always think they are bad teachers. Bad teachers don't care one way or another. Perhaps that's why teachers are always gazing at their navels, airing their dirty laundry, relaying their classroom horror stories. It sounds like they are complaining, but really they just want -- desperately -- to be good at this.

Palmer's book is also good because it acknowledges that it takes courage to teach. Teaching can be intimidating; again, bad teachers don't find it intimidating because they could care less. But good teachers steel themselves and keep going on because they cannot imagine doing anything else. It sounds to me like you are already one of these teachers who realizes that it is better to teach with fear and trembling than to settle for a laconic contentment.

Best of luck from a fellow teacher-in-training.

Kate! People LIKE our horror stories! And, few of us in secondary education have as compelling "nice" stories or as many "feel-good" stories to share; most secondary students are more reticent to thank us than they are willing to challenge us, often quite loudly! But the rewards do come; I recall a particularly low point in my life (don't ask) when I got a call out of the blue-a former student of mine, then a graduate student at U of Chicago, called me. He and his wife were visiting his mother and they watched Mr. Holland's Opus; afterwards his mother asked him who his most influential teacher was. He named me, and his mother told him to call me. He searched me out on the Internet, called and asked me if I was.... This made my day, week, year, and caused me to see my self-pity as self-indulgence. Teachers DO make a difference, even though we often don't hear about it until later, if ever. Last bit of advice-DON'T go into teaching unless you like kids; they can have a way of annoying adults at times!