Long-time readers are aware that I am actually pretty good at my job. I am smart, I am capable, and I take pride in a job well-done. I am constantly making efforts to be better at what I do.
If student evaluations are to be believed, some of my students think my expectations are too high. What they don’t realize is that I have high expectations for EVERYONE in my life. Myself…my students…my friends and family…my co-workers.
Which leads me to the reason for my post.
I ended my day today cranky. This is fairly unusual these days – I have been having a FANTASTIC semester. Good schedule, good balance, good rapport with students, awesome group of kids.
BUT…I teach two lab sections for another professor’s lecture. Said professor is a great guy, and students historically love him. But most of those historical students are second-year or older. He is scattered. He is highly disorganized. He is…frankly, not that bright when it comes down to it.
He is definitely smart enough to teach the classes he does, and he is probably a lot better than me at organic chemistry. But that’s not saying much – I suck in that area.
(Keep in mind that every opinion in this post comes from someone who has had multiple students evaluate me as, “not suited for freshman-level classes. Should be teaching higher-level students.” <bullshitsneeze>)
I believe he has fallen into the trap that so many tenured professors do – he is complacent. He knows that students will find their way through his class, no matter what he does. I know this is true…my job is not so much to teach, but to help. To put my students’ mind at ease, so they can relax and learn on their own, because this is really the only way they do learn. I can’t force knowledge on them…I can only encourage them and make them WANT the knowledge they cultivate within themselves.
BUT…there is NO FUCKING EXCUSE for having a poorly-organized class. NOT WHEN YOU HAVE TENURE. NOT WHEN YOU HAVE TAUGHT THIS COURSE BEFORE. That is PURE. FUCKING. LAZINESS.
And I’m not very understanding of that.
Last summer, due to my contract’s stipulation that I work a couple of extra credit hours to justify my summer benefits, my department head told me he would designate me as a “Laboratory Coordinator” for my and my colleague’s laboratory sections. The idea was that we would both do the same labs, and since I have been teaching this class more lately, I’d send him my schedule so he knew what I was doing.
I did this.
I even included a blanket statement of, “you did these labs for me last year…let me know if you have any reservations about them so we can work out something that works for both of us.”
Two days before classes started, I received an e-mail and syllabus that had ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO DO with what I had sent him.
Naturally, the only person that teaches labs for both lectures is me, so I am the only one that has to teach two different lessons in one week as a result of this development.
Furthermore, aforementioned professor actually printed and distributed a syllabus that listed the same lab twice, with another lab in between.
I asked him about this before classes started. No response.
Brought it up again a week or two ago. Several e-mails back and forth were unproductive and more confusing. Finally caught him in-person as he was fleeing a meeting last week, and nailed him down to a schedule for the rest of the semester, which brings me to today.
Another e-mail to all of the lab instructors, this time about how he has not yet covered this material in lecture, so we are responsible for teaching it in lab first.
Fair enough: shit sometimes happens.
BUT…I HAVE TAUGHT THIS LAB BEFORE. I USUALLY TEACH IT A MONTH FROM NOW. IT IS REALLY LONG AND DIFFICULT TO FINISH IN TWO HOURS, EVEN IF THE STUDENTS HAVE SOME CONCEPT OF HOW ACIDS AND BASES REACT IN WATER.
This…is my fault. I should have leaned on him – if he wants to do this lab now, he should cover this material in lecture now. I should have earned my “Laboratory Coordinator” title.
But shouldn’t he have earned his “Professor” title??? Shouldn’t he have READ THE FUCKING LAB when he put it on his syllabus? TWICE????
If you tell me this is the lab you want to do this week, THEN FUCKING BACK IT UP.
In short: DO NOT MAKE ME DO YOUR JOB. YOU GET PAID MORE THAN I DO.
A couple of weeks ago, someone else in my department came into my class to admonish me about how I was running the lab and how much of the various chemicals students were using. I actually heard some of them say, “her boss came in…we’re using too much…” and chuckling.
I was running the lab the way I was, in part, because the solutions she gave me were of incorrect concentration and, thus, my students were not seeing the results the way they were supposed to. Once again, I had told her this, and she had not fixed the problem. By doing the reactions in test tubes and using SLIGHTLY more of the chemicals, they might see what was supposed to happen.
She is not my boss. She is the person who prepares the chemicals and watches the budget. She should NOT have said ANYTHING to me in front of my students…but she doesn’t realize how much she undermines me when she does this.
She doesn’t have a degree in chemistry – she literally follows recipes for a living. She doesn’t know how to actually MEASURE the concentrations of the solutions she prepares for us. She doesn’t know how to prepare enough of a fresh solution to last for an entire week of lab sections.
I am sick of answering to people who are not as good at this as I am. People who have little to no expectation of themselves, but expect other people to do whatever they want. Please, God, either put me in charge…or give me a job where I answer to people who KNOW WHAT THE FUCK THEY’RE DOING.
