[lit-ideas] Re: It's gone quiet
- From: David Ritchie <ritchierd@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Mon, 31 Mar 2008 21:02:38 -0700
On Mar 31, 2008, at 8:17 PM, Robert Paul wrote:
One serious observation. With respect to Harvard, Princeton, Brown,
and possibly American University, it is simply false that
professors are available outside their idiosyncratic office hours
to talk with undergraduates. One of the draws for faculty at such
places is that you don't have to teach much unless you want to.
Even the famous large lecture courses that some super stars
voluntarily teach, rely on graduate assistants to do the grading
and to lead the 'discussion sections.' Undergraduates, especially
in the first year may see such famous people, but only in the
strict sense of 'see'—walking from limousine to library, perhaps.
At Brown we were told that X, who is world famous in his field and
seventy years old, lectures to several hundred students and, "if you
ask he question, he comes bounding up the stairs, shakes your hand,
remembers your name for the rest of the semester."
No paper chasing there.
Does anyone know the history of walking backwards? Where did it
start? How did it become the universal norm of college visits?
Perhaps I should explain to the baffled British on the list that
when, as a prospective student, you visit an American campus, the
admissions people shepherd you into an "information [read propaganda]
session" and then deliver you into the orbit of celestial body who
walks backwards while telling you all the names of the buildings you
are passing, also that the food is good.
David Ritchie,
remembering how much tugging of the forelock was involved when he
chose where to study,
Portland,
Oregon------------------------------------------------------------------
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