[1163] in Depressing_Thoughts
Re: everything sucks
hga@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (hga@ATHENA.MIT.EDU)
Thu May 17 11:05:10 1990
Since when (in modern MIT history) has MIT claimed that teaching
ability had very much if anything to do with getting tenure? How many
of you came to MIT expecting the very best in instruction, vs. the
reality of slightly hit or miss instruction from (in general) the best
people in the field?
Perhaps one of the reasons I like MIT so much better than what seems
to me the average MIT student is that I came desiring and expecting
the latter. It's also been my experience that most professors do care
about their teaching; it's just that not as many of them are as good
as their intentions. For me the intent, followed by minimal
competence, is what counts, and the occasional stellar professor, like
D.S. Kemp in the Chemistry Dept., more than balances out the
professors for whom it is a mutual, but generally profitable, struggle
to learn from.
Then again, my experiences are mostly in EECS and Chemistry,
departments that try pretty hard to provide good instruction, and the
Humanities, where I pick courses as much for the professor as for the
material.
