non doing
Posted by rob on October 20, 2002 at 19:40:56:

Greetings:

Over the last two years I've been working to get the full time faculty
at the college that I work at to agree to teach freshman classes. There
have been a few faculty who have resisted this in all kinds of ways. I
do have the authority to force people to do this work, but I was
seeking to convince them of the value of serving the students and
department in this way, of sharing the load, etc. This situation has
been a great way to see my own personality and those of my colleagues
in high relief. I have had fantasies of really punishing people by
giving them terrible teaching schedules or taking away their travel
money. I've watched my colleagues as they reject, con, just get
depressed about this. Recently I've realized that while I (capital I)
value full time faculty teaching freshman, I did not really know if
this value was shared by my colleages. We had a discussion about it and
again, one particular faculty member raised all kinds of objections,
never really entering into the conversation. He just "super starred"
his way through the meeting, making an intellectual speech. The result
was that afterwards, many faculty came up to me and said that they DID
value teaching freshman and they wished to do this. The one faculty
member clearly doesn't, and so I will allow him to contribute in the
ways that he sees fit.

10 years ago, I would have made a big mess of this situation by forcing
people to do what I want. Now, I'm able to hang back, not do too much.
Try to work on communicating and listening. And try to find ways to let
people contribute according to their wishes. I'm also able to see the
fanaties as just that.

Thanks class, thanks coach.

Rob

Follow Ups:

Continue with Fall 2002 Classroom Talk or
Post a new discussion in the current Classroom Talk

Archived 02/04/2003