- I need to write an abstract for a conference that is due today.
- I need to do a bunch of admin. stuff for a society.
- I am on a search committee, and have been very busy with things related to it.
- I basically went after and did my best to humiliate and discredit a Person with Administrative Ambitions yesterday, quite publicly, related to MUWCI, and I am considering how best to organize resistance to things that are not only bullshit but also incredibly stupid. Yay tenure.
- I have to write letters of rec for a couple of students.
But anyway, so yes, there are about 4 posts I'd really like to write, but I am too busy to write real posts. So rather than write them, I will just give you the bottom line of each:
- Either tenure is the best thing that ever happened to me (which I daily think it is) or it's really a bad idea that they gave it to me because now I think I can say anything I want in any tone I want to anyone, which is making me a little drunk with power.
- I can't wait until the searches in my department are done, although I'm very irritable about how some people involved in a search in which I am not involved have chosen to run things.
- If you are too sensitive to read literature with "vivid images" or to watch movies that are rated R then you should probably a) drop any course in which I am the instructor and b) maybe think about going to a Bible college, because dude, secular college education assumes that you can look at material aimed at adults without it burning your eyes or compromising your personal beliefs.
- Teaching at an institution like mine is not some dream gig, and you will do a ton of administrative work and generally stupid paper-pushing, along with fighting battles you will likely not win, and you will not be leading a life of the mind 90% of the time, and so seriously, people probably shouldn't lump all professors together into one big pile of privilege, because the fact of the matter is, not all tenure-track jobs are created equal, and no, I do not feel guilty for being on the tenure track nor do I think that I should have to do so.
11 comments:
Amen to your last bullet point (I have one of those jobs, too)...
Yeah, could you write some more about #4? Because yes, totally, and I like it when people affirm what I think.
Good points!
I have to say this about #3, though: the Bible is one of the most violent texts ever. If you can read about the flood or Abraham and Isaac, then you can handle any text you'll be assigned in college.
Bardiac, I am totally with you on #3, but obviously this person thinks that I'm going to expose zie to the Devil's Own Ideas. Can I just say that I'm really proud of myself for not responding, "Actually, I'd say that if something doesn't include 'vivid images' than it's probably not literature!" but that would have been mean.
Perhaps a post on 4 later... am struggling to get this abstract done.
Yep, #4s important, too. And I think you're absolutely right.
I'm guessing you saw the anger over at Tenured Radical's? Are you thinking about that?
well, you can do what I did today and avoid going to work because you can't deal with your passive/aggressive colleague's bs, and then spend the day not working because you're obsessing about not working.
If you are too sensitive to read literature with "vivid images" or to watch movies that are rated R then you should probably a) drop any course in which I am the instructor
Oh lord. Try teaching in Utah! My syllabi include boilerplate listing everything that students might encounter in my classes that might conceivably cause offense, and I spend 10 minutes on the first day of every class warning students that they won't be able to substitute other readings and assignments, or whatever their high school teachers let them get away with. That generally makes the really "sensitive" students drop the class before it's an issue, but it's always a subtext of teaching here...
After getting complaints on student evals, I have finally added a "mature content" disclaimer to my syllabus. The subject matter of one of my classes can be a bit R-rated at times, and the (excellent) documentaries that we watch have some profanity and nudity. I've found that being very proactive at the beginning of the semester makes a big difference in how students react later on. And a reminder that "we're all adults in here" does wonders to prevent the hooting and hollering when an R-rated moment appears on screen.
I think I can say anything I want in any tone I want to anyone, which is making me a little drunk with power.
You do realize that now that you have tenure, you will inexorably--but hopefully gradually--now turn into the exact same fucking douchebags you have despised since you became an assistant professor, right?
I actually have really liked those douchebags - they've been able to speak up all those times when I've had to try (usually less than totally successfully) to rein myself in! Every institution needs some loud-mouths, and I am well on my way to becoming one of them :)
As time passes, what one says as a tenured faculty member inexorably becomes stupider and more irrelevant with a "delusional gibberish" endgame. This is the Second Law of Thermodynamics of academia.
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