Having not long ago closed down a university teaching career of thirty years, I would like to go on record as saying that I wouldn’t have done it for a penny less. Teaching is arduous work, entailing much grinding detail and boring repetition, interrupted only occasionally by moments of always surprising exultation. And I should like to add that I don’t think I learned a thing from my students. God love ‘em.
That is from Joseph Epstein’s new In a Cardboard Belt!: Essays Personal, Literary, and Savage. I might add he taught at Northwestern, not an inner city high school. By the way, Epstein has even less kind things to say about George Steiner and Harold Bloom, both of whom have evolved into essay writers much like Epstein.
The link is broken.
Actually that link doesn’t go to the correct paper either, but rather one on “THE SOCIAL AND POLITICAL VIEWS OF AMERICAN PROFESSORS”
Click on the link, then delete /marginalrevol-20 (the last part of the address) in the URL bar. Reload.
Is the point of being a prof to learn from your students? Or is teaching the entry ticket to a job with good pay, nearly unparalleled freedom when working on someone else’s nickel and smart, engaging colleagues? Much as I admire profs and value our world-leading university system, calling teaching arduous underscores the oft-heard criticism that the professoriate is pampered, plump and out of touch. Mining and farming are arduous. Sitting on a soft chair in an air-conditioned office, or standing for an hour in an air-conditioned hall, looks more like luck, than labor, to me.
“And I should like to add that I don’t think I learned a thing from my students. God love ‘em.”
Would the other academics on this site agree or disagree?
I am surprised by this remark.
reminds me of a poker quote, “hours of boredom, followed by moments of sheer terror.”
My father was a professor, and he seemed to love teaching, it was the grading that he was happy to retire from.
Mr. Epstein was one of my teachers twenty years ago at Northwestern University, in a small creative writing workshop.
He did not seem to have the temperament for teaching, and I am surprised that he stayed on for so long. He was most animated while reading his own previously-published work to the group.
Mr. Epstein is a wonderfully talented writer, but I think it is sad that he spent so much time in a profession that offered him so few intellectual rewards. I know nothing of his circumstances, but one must assume that he was driven by the financial rewards or status of being a Northwestern professor.
I learned a lot about writing from Mr. Epstein. The lesson that has lasted the longest is how difficult it is to be funny in print. My own attempts at jokes were rewarded with a terse “NFE” in the paper margins, his abbreviation for “Not Funny Enough.” I haven’t read the entire essay, so I will reserve my judgment on whether the joke in Mr. Epstein’s excerpted paragraph above is “funny enough”.
If you enjoy a good hatchet job, read what Epstein wrote about Mortimer Adler, for whom he had the misfortune of working. It’s in The Weekly Standard, July 2001.
My father is a proffesor .He has benn teaching since 1964,He is on pension but still teach.I guess he enjoys his work.
Im also a University professor , Law,in Southamerica and I would say:
“And I should like to add that I don’t think I learned a thing from my fellows. God hate ‘em.”
Some of them only went to the University for their check.Today the money goes to their bank account , so they dont even bother to come for their payment.
And their papers deserve what Kant said : the good part is not theirs .The original one is not good.
You have to balance that against the fact that most teachers teach only 9 months a year, though.
I have always been, I thought, a huge fan of Joseph Epstein’s. His latest collection includes not only the passage quoted, but an essay entitled, “Why I Am Not a Lawyer,” which was a bit disheartening as I waited for the results of the Illinois bar exam to be released. Epstein’s tone was a bit sour, I thought, this time around. His right, certainly, but disappointing to his readers.
@Bob Montgomery:
Just cause you can elect to spread a 9-month salary over 12 months of year doesn’t mean you are getting a 12-month salary. And you can’t always elect to spread it out either.
I’m surprised he emphasizes teaching. Economics in research universities involves only about 20% time spent on teaching (10% admin, 70% research) if you want to get tenure. Whether you enjoy teaching or not, it’s hardly the focus of being a prof in a research university like NWU.
My experience is that you don’t learn from students but they provide impetus for useful new ideas and leads, so I’m glad to listen to them.
As for the pay, well duh, (almost) everyone thinks they deserve what they are paid and more. Get over it.
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