-
Introduction
- University Press of New England
- Chapter
- Additional Information
ix introduction As per the title of the opening essay of this collection, I teach at a small, impoverished, careworn college. This signifies two things: one, that we are a threat to nobody and therefore are pretty much left alone to do what we do best (teach); and two, that open admissions is a necessity if we are to survive as an institution . The result is that my school has a fascinating—and often very challenging—mix of students. In my own classes they have ranged in age from seventeen to seventy-two. There have been students quivering with fear who do amazingly well, the overconfident who cannot comprehend the poverty of their performance , and the rabid overachievers for whom an A is a matter of life and death. I have taught the homeless, the abused, single parents, the unwitting, the witting, the well prepared and those seriously ill-equipped to go to college, the bright and notso -bright, and the conflicted who put more energy into excuses for their absences and missed assignments than they do into the coursework itself (see my chapter, “The Death of Fiction”). I even once had a murderer in my class, who was otherwise a very nice person. Teaching college is like being in the military in peacetime: no calls to battle stations, but a surfeit of ongoing intrigues. I try to run the gamut of them here, reflecting on such things as the decline of reading for enjoyment (and the resulting inability to interpret figurative text); the misbegotten belief that everyone must go to college (with predictably frustrating results for many); the ongoing challenge of teaching evolution, more than eighty years after the Scopes Monkey Trial was thought to have been the final catharsis; the folly of regarding e-mail as praiseworthy ersatz for expository writing; as well as some reflective essays on the profound joys of teaching, which can still be had x p Introduction in an age when teachers are under fire for presumably not working hard enough. In sum, this collection represents the personal ruminations of one biology professor on the experience of teaching non-majors in a nondescript, out-of-the-way place which is more an outpost than a campus. It is a special vocation, and though teaching is no longer as respected as once upon a time, it still provides rewards that are absent in most other professions. It is, for sure, an imperfect occupation, as it is difficult if not impossible to get an entire class of students to rise to one’s expectations. It is important , then, to do one’s best; but equally important not to be shackled to the results of one’s efforts, which might produce a depressing book. Teaching is, to say the least, an interesting ride, and this collection contains the truth, so far as I know it, of my experiences. [44.222.149.13] Project MUSE (2024-03-19 05:25 GMT) thethree-leggedwoman &otherexcursionsinteaching ...