Well there's only one student I'd f*ck this year. That make my life easier.

Don't panic, I don't teach grade3--I teach college, and this is a grad seminar specifically. The student in question (dark hair, bearded, great smile) is safe too: I don't have sex with current students. I have, however, had sex with one former student. He was 40; I was 38. We're grown-ups.

However I know that, as a gay man, I have to be less-than-forthright about these things with my colleagues. For both juridical and political reasons, the notion that two consenting adults who've previously been in a disequitous situation could make an a posteriori decision to f*ck just doesn't get a reasonable airing. Administration, fearful of harassment complaints, won't renew an adjunct contract. Other profs, many of whom being baby-boomers, have a decidely 70s ethos regarding eros and the academy.

Funny though: a number of senior tenured academic staff are married to "former students." Too bad I'd only be interested in a shag...and I'm already married. D'oh!

After a (too long) 18 month break, I'm back in the classroom again as of last Monday--woo hoo! I'd been working overseas but am back at my alma mater, a "research intensive" university on the West coast. I'm teaching in a familiar context (the department where I did my PhuD). What's kind of fun is I'm now teaching the very first seminar I took in grad skool.

Or, team teaching it, to be more accurate. With a professional colleague who heretofore will be referred to as the Wanker.

Why the Wanker? Well in many respects he epitomizes what I don't ever want to be.He is somone who:

-is trying to cobble together a livelihood out of adjunt/sessional lecturing (5 courses a semester or more, in his case);
-wants "to make sure the workload is popular with students so we get really good evaluations";
-likes teaching "because it's so easy I could do it in my sleep"; and
-who has a psychcology degree, and tries to lame-ass psychoanalyze me.

Ergo the Wanker.

Our first meeting he tried to charm me. When he saw that I wasn't easily manipulated, he tried to dominate me. When that didn't work he, it was flattery. Finally he opted for "my goodness you have a powerful super-ego--tell me about your parents!" Ew!

After the initial tussle, he even tried passive-aggressive: he sent me a "revised" syllabus that didn't reflect the changes we negotiated. And when I pointed this out, he called me up rather snarkily...then caved. As is right: he was off the mark and he knew it.

Our first class went fine, though he tread slightly on the ground of uncollegial a couple of times (once towards me, once towards our faculty's librarian). But that's fine, most of the students miss that, and the ones who don't seem amused. Works for me!

a/k/a "what's really important in education"

1. You shouldn't use red pen--it's stigmatizing (in a 4th year university course)
2. Mr. Pedablogue at times dresses inappropriately, including ripped and torn clothes (my jeans tore once en route to class--which I only discovered in class. At times indeed)
3. Counting grammar and spelling in a ________ (non-language arts) class isn't fair
4. Mr. Pedablogue is too rigid about being on time
5. His evaluation is unfair; I've never gotten less than an A before his class (my evaluation is unfair? think of your brighter peers)


What's the wonkiest feedback you've ever got from student evaluations?

As my experience teaching in higher education grows, so does my confidence. As does my frustration with the "dumbing down" of college/university standards. Most particularly writing.

When I did my BA, I did half-arsed work and got half-arsed marks. I fully exercised my right to spend waaay more time in the pub than the library. Really. But I never expected my profs to give me 80s and 90s when my effort was inconsistent at best. I rather pathologically avoided classes that required long papers, and managed to get a BA after having only written 2 papers longer than 15 pages. Sad in hindsight; I should have been held to a higher standard.

Today's undergraduate students seem to think that handing in a paper means it gets 80 or higher. After being asked every year if grammar and spelling and quality of writing "count," I now explicitly state that it does--a lot. "How many sources do I need in my bibliography?" Enough. "Yeah but what's the minimum for your class?" Enough to integrate relevant substantive evidence to support your claims.

Most of my students already have a bachelor's (or higher) of some sort, from varying disciplines. Some of my math and science students whinge about how their degrees didn't "require" writing. Well this degree program does (it's a BEd rather than a diploma or certificate). But I also get students who will teach trades ("shop"), who've only done 2 years of college qualification courses and another 2 years at a technical institute--these folks often have legitimate reasons for having never learned to write at the university level (having taken freshman comp for the first time last year. At age 40), but they never whinge about having to revise and tweak their written work. Because they are there to learn, in addition to getting a credential.

Before I went back to grad skool I worked in the private and non-profit sectors for 10+ years. So my standards of what constitutes "good" writing reflect what constituted professional-level writing for business purposes. Have a point. Get to the point. Back up your point. What's next? No surface errors, no glaring grammar or usage problems, organized and readable. Monosyllabic, polysyllabic--doesn't matter as much to me, so long as the work is clean, structured and relevant. Were the politic of things different in my program, I'd have failed 5-10% of my students because I reject the notion that any school teacher who can't spell (or at least critically use a spell checker) shouldn't be allowed to teach (learning disabilties like dyslexia aside: but again, my students who've been dyslexic have never rationalized away the need to work on their writing. They try--is it too much to expect that everyone tries?

Or is it just me?

As soon as I mark these last 35 papers, I'm a free person. Which apparently requires my putting away the computer and reading the *&^? things.

Hate that.

Finished marking the first set of papers around 11pm last night. Got the other set today and haven't done a thing except alphabetize them. And verified whose paper might be missing. None, as it were.

This class was hard to say goodbye to. Loved 'em, not every individual--though no real pains in the class--but they gave great discussion. And their papers were good.

....even as I attempted to scurry out of the room. Though I expect the evaluations will be less laudatory. Meh.

I've marked about 1/3 of the papers and will try to get another 1/3 done tonite. The bar is so low under the pass/fail system, the paper would have to be seriously flawed to fail. Mediocre is equivalent to excellence. Sadly.

Today is the last class of the suckiest class I've ever had. They're incommunicative, moody, and only a handful are sharper than a butterknife. I'm teaching the same subject with another class--and it's a course I've taught for a few years--and it's great. Chalk it up to the cohort effect, where one or two strong personalities set the tone. Positive, affirming leads make for a great cohort; crabby negative whingy ones make for a sucky one.

I've never had a bad class before, so perhaps my fortune merely ran out. Though I'll concede that a fair number of students of mine over the years would be as biting in their critique of me. Arranged marriages so often don't work out

[culled from CBC News: http://www.cbc.ca/stories/2003/11/25/education_study031125]

TORONTO - Canada ranked first in education spending of all the G-7 countries, according to a new study.

Canada's education spending equalled 6.6 per cent of its gross domestic product according to guidelines from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, says the report.

Smaller provinces and the territories spent more of their GDP on education than larger provinces.

The 394-page report was written by the Canadian Education Statistics Council, a partnership between Statistics Canada and the Council of Ministers of Education.

The report says that in 2001 Canadian provincial governments spent 15 per cent of their total expenditures on education and 17 per cent on health. Until 2000, education had received more spending than health, said the council.

Dr. Paul Cappon, director-general of the ministers' council, says the findings should not be used at face value but as a guide. He is concerned falling education spending could become a trend.

"It's interesting that even with people with backgrounds in medicine, they consider education is a strong determinant of health," said Cappon.

The report also says a dropping birth rate means fewer students. Between 2001 and 2011, there will be a 14 per cent drop in the school-age population in Canada.

The report is titled "Education Indicators in Canada: Report of the Pan-Canadian Education Indicators Program 2003." It took three years to complete.