It really does matter that a large proportion like you, at least for classes like these full of freshpersons with no prior investment in the material. Which saddens me, as I hadn't expected all those annoying strategies and anxieties involved in being liked to matter in this line of work.
This observation of yours reminds me a bit of a comment made by a friend-of-a-friend who had taught at a prep school for a year after a long time of living on adjunct college instructor pay. (He and I had an exchange about it all sometime last fall, when I was struck by the unexpectedly fragile ecosystem of the classroom.)
"what a puzzle! i found myself having to continually assert my "self" (self= the value of the project, the basic rules of conduct, that i ought to be listened to, that their obnoxious excuses are invalid, that literature is of interest) which was a drag."
It's the part about convincing them to care (which tripped up another doctoral student/adjunct instructor friiend of mine) that can seem so surprising. I mean, it can then be gratifying - if you do end up convincing/showing them. But yes. And, maybe especially because literature is such feeling thing?, whether they like you or not is the crucial ingredient. If they adore you, you can get them to reams of stream of consciousness narrative and discuss it meaningfully. If they don't, it's like trying to sell a mudbath to a cat.
Makes sense - in that the success of literature itself has so much to do with rhetoric. But yeah. Yeah.
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2010-03-27 03:21 pm (UTC)This observation of yours reminds me a bit of a comment made by a friend-of-a-friend who had taught at a prep school for a year after a long time of living on adjunct college instructor pay. (He and I had an exchange about it all sometime last fall, when I was struck by the unexpectedly fragile ecosystem of the classroom.)
"what a puzzle! i found myself having to continually assert my "self" (self= the value of the project, the basic rules of conduct, that i ought to be listened to, that their obnoxious excuses are invalid, that literature is of interest) which was a drag."
It's the part about convincing them to care (which tripped up another doctoral student/adjunct instructor friiend of mine) that can seem so surprising. I mean, it can then be gratifying - if you do end up convincing/showing them. But yes. And, maybe especially because literature is such feeling thing?, whether they like you or not is the crucial ingredient. If they adore you, you can get them to reams of stream of consciousness narrative and discuss it meaningfully. If they don't, it's like trying to sell a mudbath to a cat.
Makes sense - in that the success of literature itself has so much to do with rhetoric. But yeah. Yeah.