Thanks to Jennifer Howard’s piece in the Chronicle of Higher Edumacation, we found Brian Croxall’s essay about life in the trenches. He can’t afford to go to the MLA convention, the annual yak fest filled with the nuttiest paper titles you’ve ever heard.
The tuition is higher than ever but the pay for the professors is lower than ever. It’s bad enough when the grad students are on food stamps. It’s even worse when the professors qualify! But Mr. Croxall does.
I think Mr. Croxall does a good job summarizing what’s wrong with paying the professors as little as possible. The kids can’t find their professors, the professors can’t spare the time to correct the papers, the professors can’t get to know the kids, etc. You get what you pay for.
But I was absolutely flumoxed by the kicker at the end where Mr. Croxall:
It’s not currently a sustainable profession; but even more so, they will have had that many less chances to have those interactions with teachers that leads to today’s students wanting to become tomorrow’s teachers.
So if the profession is not sustainable, why would anyone want to bring more people into the profession? If the teacher wants to convey the best advice for the kids, why should the teacher suggest in any way shape or form that the kids should aspire to be a professor?
Literature is entertainment. At its best, it can help us understand our soul, but at the end of the day it’s pretty much an option for everyone. Food and shelter are necessities; Pride and Prejudice is optional.
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