TITLE: A Great Job
AUTHOR: Eugene Wallingford
DATE: January 28, 2011  1:35 PM
DESC: 
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BODY:
The latest newsletter from my graduate alma mater
mentioned that
<A HREF="http://www.cse.msu.edu/~stockman/">
   one of my favorite profs</A>
is retiring.  I always considered myself fortunate to
have studied AI with him in my first term of grad
school and later to have worked as a TA with him when
he taught the department's intro course.  I learned a
lot from both experiences.  The AI course taught me a
lot about how to be a scientist.  The intro course
taught me a lot about how to be a teacher.

I often hear about how faculty at research schools
care only about their research and therefore make for
bad teachers in the undergraduate classroom.  There
are certainly instances of this stereotype, but I
think it is not generally true.  Active researchers
can be bad teachers, but then again so can faculty
who aren't active in research.  Working as this
prof's TA, I saw that even good researchers can be
very good undergraduate teachers.  He cared about his
students, cared about their learning, and prepared his
classes carefully.  Those are important ingredients for
good teaching no matter who is doing it.

I dropped him a quick e-mail to thank him for all his
guidance while I was in grad school and to wish him
well in retirement.  In his response, he expressed a
sentiment many teachers will recognize:

<BLOCKQUOTE><EM>
I'm sure you have been in the university business long
enough to realize what a great job we have.  Working
with students such as you has been very rewarding.
</EM></BLOCKQUOTE>

I have, indeed, been in the university business long
enough to realize what a great job we professors have.
Over the years, I've had the good fortune to work with
some amazing students, both undergrad and grad.  That
joy comes as part of working with a lot of wonderful
young people along their path to professional careers
and meaningful lives.

When you add the opportunity to work with students
and the opportunity to explore interesting ideas and
follow where they might lead us, you get a nearly
unbeatable combination.  It's good for me to step back
every once in a while and remember that.
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