...and I teach because I love the kids...

I didn’t want this gem to get buried in the comments and go unread. IPF shares two all-too-familiar anecdotes about being an add-junk.

Inside the Philosophy Factory said...

I really think that some of them believe that the academy is a pure meritocracy and thus, those with merit get tenure. They don't want to admit that the hiring process that put them in their sweet job could have just as easily put one of 100 other qualified people into their job...

I'll never forget the ignorant comment made at a random faculty event about 5 years ago. Some t-t person was lamenting having to teach a J-term class (short course between fall and spring semester). She said, "if I'd known how little it pays, I'd have made an adjunct teach it" -- This comment bothered me at the time because I was adjuncting both there and at other places, had considered trying to jam a J-term class into my schedule (money is necessary!) and realized that the 3-hours per day, 4-days per week schedule made it impossible to do that and adjunct at the other places.

An adjunct friend of mine in NE had the guts to correct a table full of our college administration who thought she was waiting tables as a hobby... she told them the truth, that her adjunct job was the hobby because it paid so little. They left her a big tip but changed nothing on campus...

I can hear it now: “Aww, how cute. You must wait on people because you like it so much…” To which my response would be to hurl their knock-off ethnic food at their bloated egos.

Good thing I don’t wait anymore…