Sorry, don’t agree 100% with you on this!…

Please note that I am saying nothing about the relative importance of teaching and research. I am just pointing out that the TA system is a deliberate means to dupe young people into thinking that they are teachers and need to perform professionally in their job. By focusing on teaching, you are NOT addressing what you think is a flaw in Berkeley and academia in general, you are just walking into a trap. You have the illusion that you are a teacher; the university does not. They see you as a carefree student whom they are doing a huge favour by giving a couple of pennies each month. And of course, they would like nothing better than for you to nurse the illusion that you are a paid employee who must perform professionally at his job!!!! Who wouldn’t like DEDICATED CHEAP LABOUR!!!!

Mark my words; your thoughts on the importance of teaching are justified; but save these thoughts for the time you are given the rank of a professor. For the time being, “neglect” teaching with a clear conscience; because YOU ARE NOT A TEACHER! As such, you are “neglecting” your teaching in the very same way that you are “neglecting” any other kind of work in the world…such as building roads, flying airplanes or selling shoes. Teaching is just not part of your job!

Thank you for the excellent real world evidence

Didn’t something like this happen in Britain over the last decade or two, where some science departments (ie. physics, chemistry, etc …) at smaller less well known universities were downsized and/or consolidated? Basically what remained was kept around for the purposes of teaching the “service” courses like freshman physics, chemistry, etc …. for other majors like engineering, etc …

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/education/5399346.stm

If it wasn’t for the pro-active work of the staff PhD’s at attracting funding through their reputations as researchers, most physics departments would collapse, lose their accreditation, and only have money to pay for a few low-grade teachers whose sole purpose would be to educate the aforementioned “cash-cow” majors.

The brief version of this is as follow: I agree with Joel. Bellow is the long version, including my personal experiences.

I went to undergraduate school in Puerto Rico and mayor in physics with an almost second mayor in mathematics. Most of my teachers were Puerto Ricans, and they were great professors. Now I am a third year graduate student in Stony Brook University.

Looking back at my undergraduate years, I frankly do not know how I got through them and stayed in physics. The physics majors consisted of mostly the students who failed to enter to the engineering programs. In this way UPRM is different from Berkley (and most colleges in the US): students must declare a major before they even start classes. Most physics majors simply did not want to be there. The professors were enthusiastic and encouraging, but most of the time it felt like they were talking to dead ears. I was lucky to have at least three other classmates that were into physics and we were able to experience an exchange of ideas and mutual support. But it was between a small number of people. In the end it is better than nothing, so in this sense my experience was not that bad. Still, it was very difficult to get through college with very little support and motivation from the rest of the student community.

Besides my professors in Puerto Rico, I do not know of Puerto Rican physicists. There should be quite a few. But not knowing about any example was what drove me to want to become a successful theorist: I felt I had to do something about it. I was actually discouraged by one of my professors from pursuing theory versus experiment. In the end he might be partially correct, but I could not give up without trying. Right now I am in the process of becoming a research student working on AdS/CFT. Even if I finish my PhD successfully, my chances of working as a professor are quite slim. In fact this chances are slim for everyone. So I am starting to not see myself as working in academia in the future. Maybe this is what happen to others?

Teaching is very important for me too. I was excited to teach my labs in Stony Brook. Unfortunately, it was not what I expected. My sections were big (+25 students) and late at night (8 – 10 PM, but that was partially my choice). Most of the students were unmotivated (pre-meds). Still, I tried very hard to be as good of a TA as possible. What really bother me was the attitude that some of my fellow grad students and TAs had toward teaching: they were lousy and on top of that, their students liked that lousiness (in the sense of not taking grading so seriously or being way laid back). Of course, I worked really hard on my teaching and I notice that my course-work went a bit down. Then I realized that “teaching” was not a good excuse: in grad school what matters is your learning and your research.

It was very frustrating to understand this. Sadly, I had to concentrate more attention to my own business and dedicate less efforts to teaching. I was not able to find a balance between teachin duties and classwork/research. From what I heard I still managed to be quite popular among pre-med students (in a good way, of course ).

There should be a balance. Students should be allowed to teach and practice that teaching. I also belive that suffering through professors that are bad at teaching can lead to someone becomening a good professor becuase they do not want others to go through what they went through as students. This is how I think, and probably most people do not share this view. Maybe people can get even more motivated by good teachers and emulate them. But in a way, bad professors are a bit nessesary.

Joel: I belive Compass is a great idea. Good job and thank you and your fellow Compass collaborators.

Why should it take someone a half-hour to answer a tangential and misguided question?

I spent my entire time in high school physics senior year figuring out new tangential and misguided questions to achieve just that effect. It wasn’t until the end of the third quarter that the instructor finally caught on.