Just out of curiosity, Louis, how many students do you have each semester in your 4 sections of US History? I have 150 students in my 1 section of intro psych and another 120 in my two sections of animal behavior. And, of course, I've got about 75 undergraduate advisees. (And no, I do not have a TA.)
Do I know the cares and concerns of each student? Of course not!!! Could I even if I tried? Not a chance. Do I even want to? Not really. I think it's just fine that you try to learn the cares & concerns of your students but I'm betting that your classes are small enough to permit that only because there are guys like me who are willing to carry the load of very large classes so that the university can afford to let you teach smaller classes. And I am certainly NOT trying to imply that I do more work than you. I'm quite certain that you devote far more time to each student than do I. I am suggesting that the total amount of time evens out and that each of us serves in our own way. The reason people get so annoyed at posts such as this one is that it implies that what you do is more valuable than a) what others do and that b) students would be better off if we were all Schmier clones. I'm only suggesting that a) what you do, while valuable, isn't necessarily better and that b) not only would students not necessarily be better off with a campus full of Schmiers, many students could not afford to even attend the university because the cost of all those small (Schmierean) classes would make it prohibitively expensive. I think you might engender less hostility on this list if you spent even half the time trying to understand the problems of your colleagues that you spend trying to understand the problem of your students. Ed Edward I. Pollak, Ph.D. Department of Psychology West Chester University of Pennsylvania http://mywebpages.comcast.net/epollak/home.htm ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Husband, father, grandfather, biopsychologist, bluegrass fiddler and herpetoculturist...... in approximate order of importance. Subject: Random Thought: A Quickie on Caring From: "Louis Schmier" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: Tue, 20 Mar 2007 06:01:08 -0400 X-Message-Number: 1 You say you care about each student. Do you know each student? Do you know the cares and concerns of each student? Make it a good day. --Louis-- --- To make changes to your subscription go to: http://acsun.frostburg.edu/cgi-bin/lyris.pl?enter=tips&text_mode=0&lang=english
