Benefits of grad school

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This recent NYT article (on lawyers’ need for training post-law school) fits in with something I’ve been thinking about: what enduring benefits does grad school confer on humanities profs, beyond a credential required for employment?

Grad school made my Latin and Greek much better, of course; writing a dissertation helped my research skills. But I have to wonder if grad schools go about this in the most useful way, since I've only once taught an author from one of my grad school seminars. I've also found writing a publishable article an absolutely foreign experience, despite having written and defended a dissertation.

Maybe going 'back to the basics' is a common reaction to adversity, but it's been odd how often in the five years since I started my career that I've returned to authors, teaching methods or writing tips I encountered in my undergrad classes. I know grad school must have been more than 8+ years of waiting to mature and practicing translation skills, but I'm finding it hard to identify specifics right now.

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Classics and 'Specialness'

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I read with pleasure Mary Beard's post yesterday on her upcoming lecture "Does Classics Have a Future?" She is considering incorporating The Browning Version into the talk, focusing on the scene where the beleaguered classics teacher, Andrew Crocker-Harris, is given Robert Browning's translation of Aeschylus' Agamemnon as a gift.

This caught my attention for a couple of reasons. One is that my SO showed me the 1994 Albert Finney film just after we had started dating, so it seems to be important to his idea of what the classics are. (I showed him Branagh's Henry V, a movie I can't watch at the moment because of its gratingly idealistic tone. [Look at us! We conquered France because our king is more closely related to the previous king that yours! Hooray!])

Beard's post, and the Browning Version scene, also mesh well with some thoughts I've been pondering about Classics and specialness. As a Gen Xer, I lived through the whole parental/pedagogical experiment with raising self-esteem as an end in itself. So part of why I value Classics is that it shows me both that I'm not special and that it doesn't matter that I'm not. For thousands of years, people have had their hopes dashed, let themselves down and made stupid decisions. (Like killing your brother's kids and serving them at a feast. Or sacrificing your daughter for the sake of a military expedition.)

Am I wild about living in a rather isolated town with less-than-pleasant winters? Of course not. But I understand that economic forces cannot always be overcome by "believing in yourself." And most importantly, studying classics has helped me develop an imaginative and creative life that should be able to transcend temporarily unpleasant circumstances. Pin It

Home internet is back!

My home internet is back, so I look forward to resuming posting. Today I finished a book review (the scholarly kind, not the blogging kind) that I've been meaning to do for a few days. Tomorrow I play. Pin It

I need to be tougher

So, I have been letting my Latin students do corrections on quizzes (for half their missing points) if their original grade is below a B. Self-correction can be a good learning experience, and I don't want this class to continue on to intermediate Latin in a state of cluelessness.

Despite the great generosity of this policy, today I started to see grade creep. People were handing in quizzes on which they originally received Bs, with their self-corrections attached.

Background: I tend to be afraid of ticking students off. As a woman I am keenly aware of the sexism of student evaluations. I also had my first job at a small liberal arts college where I went in unaware of the amount of hand-holding I was expected to do. I also had two aggressive older colleagues constantly breathing down my neck (to the point of quizzing students at department gatherings oh-so-subtly about the quality of my classes).

But. Self-corrections are supposed to be about learning, not grade-grubbing. So my new policy is that they may be done by anyone gets below a 60. And of course, test and exam grades are (and have always been) immutable.

The dance between "student-friendly" and ridiculous pushover is indeed a subtle one. Pin It

"As if celebrating beauty were something to be ashamed of"

The Great Courses’ uninhibited enthusiasm is so alien to contemporary academic discourse that several professors who have recorded for the firm became defensive when I asked them about their course descriptions, emphatically denying any part in writing the copy—as if celebrating beauty were something to be ashamed of.

I take a piece like this (from City Journal) with a grain of salt, of course. The study of art and literature is always evolving, and newer approaches such as theory can be made interesting and relevant, as long as the lecturer is interested in doing so. Not all professors are. Some are teaching to whatever audience already 'gets' what they are doing, with the rest of the class passively along for the ride.

The audience [of the Great Courses DVDs] —mostly older professionals with successful careers—sees the liberal arts as a life-changing experience, observes Louis Markos, an English professor at Houston Baptist University who has recorded courses on C. S. Lewis and on literary criticism for the company. “They are hungry for this material.”

This resonated with me. When I introduced my Latin students to the development of the alphabet I was forced to remember where I first learned about Phoenician writing systems, and the answer surprised me: in my grandparents' living room. They had shelves of Time-Life books about literature, art and history, which I read when I was bored as a little kid. My grandfather was an undiagnosed dyslexic who had some difficulty finishing college, whose father had a sixth grade education. His home office had shelves of Shakespeare and rigorous nonfiction books. My grandmother recently told me about their trip to Greece with two other couples, and how my grandfather studied Greek history and mythology so he could serve as their tour guide. I wish I could find an undergraduate half that enthusiastic sometimes.

So City Journal may go a little far in advocating a college curriculum modeled on these recorded lecture series, but their point about daring to revel in the beauty of the Western aesthetic tradition is well taken. Pin It

Good teachers are made by their circumstances

Waiting for my first-year Latin class to start this morning, I was thinking about the number of times I've taught this course. I haven't always been superlatively successful (meaning good evaluations). One time, in grad school, I had a Latin class that absolutely adored me. And I think that hurt my efforts to be a consistently good teacher of Latin.

First, when I ran into those students outside of class I was afraid of any cracks showing in my "fun teacher" persona. Second, after I finished that class I was officially a "good Latin teacher." But the problem was that most of the things I did with that class have not worked with subsequent classes (aside from obvious activities like translation and form review, I mean).

My "good class" was small (13 students) and came the year after my first TA year as a Latin teacher. My ratings that first year were mediocre. So I had the automatic advantage of a small class (you can personally interact with everyone, hand tests back right away, etc.) I had the further advantage of a self-selected group who wanted to study Latin even if their instructor had so-so reviews (not always a given).

So I treasure the memory of those students and that class, but I try to remember that, contrary to popular wisdom, good teachers are made by their circumstances.

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The Joys of Motherhood

When I was in grad school, hanging out at a book store was an activity that indicated ennui more than anything else.

"Oh well, I'm bored/lonely/tired of classes, I'll go to Barnes and Noble."

Now, with a ten month old and no internet at home (yet)?

"YEAH! I'm hanging out at a bookstore!" Pin It