I really should not read the far-libertarian blogs.
Because now, I am being told I am a moocher, a parasite, and very likely a Communist.
Because I teach at a public university. Which should all be shut down. And those of us who teach at them, I guess, put in a battle royale with all private university faculty and those few left standing at the end get to teach at the few private universities that remain.
I don't know. I already fear having to justify my existence more and more. I already fear being told my courseload is going to double because we can't employ TAs or "instructors" any more because of budget cuts.
I hate the world right now. I feel like it's going to get a thousand times worse before it gets better, and I wonder if it's even going to get better in my lifetime.
Monday, March 08, 2010
depressed
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5 comments:
I know precisely what you mean, Ricki. Only I'm further in the pale--I teach in an *English Department,* where I am literally one of two non-leftists in the department. And they can't fire the other one because he's black.
I've been thinking about taking courses to become a gunsmith. I love teaching, but I'm tired of academia.
Hey, you two, please continue doing what you're doing. You are too precious to lose because you are among a small minority.
Libertarians with their priorities straight ought to be much more alarmed about the very real problem of higher education institutions preaching about free speech while, in fact, practicing collectivist left-wing political indoctrination, than about public institutions (often the only available outlets for students from families of low and moderate incomes)not meeting some kind of purity test in their source of funding.
The sun will still rise in the morning. (And since you're somewhere in the South, Ricki, "After all, tomorrow is another day.")
I'll second Dave R. and say hang in there, Ricki and HH.
My dad has been in higher education for 36 years now, as professor, dean, and back to professor. He will probably retire after the next academic year.
We've talked a lot about the changes that he has seen at his university and education in general over the last decade. Higher education inflation, like health care inflation, is simply not sustainable for much longer. A correction is coming and it will boil down to the bureaucracy/ideologues vs. professors who truly teach and deliver value to their students(customers).
Forget the extreme libertarians. If you love teaching then stand up for the students and expose the BS to the parents and taxpayers who pay for a lot of this. Academia still has widespread support from the public, but not for the waste and the BS. It's not the teachers who deliver that people want to see go.
I feel conflicted, too--the only jobs that pay anything are in the public schools.
Far extreme libertarians don't want the government to do ANYTHING and that's just silly. I've talked to some "big el" libertarians who don't think that the military should exist. Other than provoking near-frothing anger in the back of my mind, it just reinforces how stupid extremist philosophies can be.
Public education is necessary and if the DoE would focus on education rather than social experimentation, life would be so much better.
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