Sunday, July 6, 2008

the things you hear on group rides...

Overheard at the start of Worlds, a local Sunday morning group ride

girl 1 "I can't believe how lame professors are"
girl 2 "yeah, they sure don't do much"
girl 1 "I can't believe they don't even show up for their own exams! I mean, at least have the nerve to show up for your own exam! We have to show up!"
girl 2 "yeah"

At that point, I started chuckling, and stopped paying much attention. I was plotting a witty comeback, but then I got distracted. It was a bike ride, after all, and I started having fun playing around, and stopped wondering about it. I started thinking about it again on the way back, after the sprint, but I looked around for those girls, and they were gone. Too late...

I guess people really do think all we do is teach a class now and then and just sit around...when in fact the teaching is such a miniscule part of the job, it's actually laughable! Sure, sometimes we don't show up for final exams. But that is becuase we have worked our travel schedule so that we fly out AFTER the last day of instruction, so that we WON'T miss student time, to go to conferences, or to meet with research collaborators, or to recruit new graduate students, or to serve on national committees or proposal reviews, or meet with program managers who fund our research.

Oh...and to any UCSB students who might read this blog: Sometimes your professors race their bikes, AND show up on group rides! :-)

8 comments:

Manley Man said...

Ha...too funny! And let the students not forget that instructors have facebook accounts too. When I teach my annual Spring quarter class at SCU I'll bring up the students' facebook account if their late to class and send them a message like, "Wow, this class is really great...too bad you're late."

Kimberly (aka. DrKim) said...

Thats an awesome idea...can I borrow it?
:-)

Manley Man said...

Go for it...and then to embarrass them a bit further, keep their profile open and start looking at their photos.

Chris said...

You are preaching to the choir. My wife was a professor for years and heard all those same things.

Courtenay said...

classic.

i used to ride horses with an econ professor at u.va. i never took her class (econ of education didn't really toot my horn) but i knew for a fact she worked and wrote like mad. and made it out to the barn for a precious hour or so a day!

Greg Knowles said...

This town is very small. BUSTED! ;o)

Eclectchick said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Eclectchick said...

Oh boy. I taught veterinary technology classes part-time for a very, very long couple of years. It was SO much work!!!

When you accept that first teaching position, they tell you you'll be teaching X number of hours. But the big secret that they DON'T tell you is that you'll spend many additional hours preparing labs, creating and correcting tests, etc., etc., ad infinitum.

Teachers are amazing and should be lauded, treasured and given HUGE monetary awards!