"Some of my best section leaders have been non-computer science majors," Bernstein says. "They often have a better perception of what it's like to learn it when it's not your own field."
William H. Bossert '59, McKay Professor of Applied Mathematics, first used undergraduates as teachers in Natural Sciences 110 about 15 years ago and says he has also used graduate students in non-science fields like law and music.
"There weren't qualified grad students," Bossert says, adding. "We do not admit graduate students in order to staff our undergraduate courses."
In all of the courses, section lists are reviewed by the teaching fellows before they are finalized to avoid conflicts of interest such as undergraduates teaching their roommates or friends. Bossert says that in his experience, only two circumstances have arisen in which the student's section needed to be changed after final section lists were posted.
Undergraduates who teach generally say they do so because they enjoy teaching, not because of the salary (which is about $2000 per semester, depending on experience and the student's responsibility.)
"The pay was not so great that applicants were falling all over us," Bossert says, but several students express the view that their enjoyment eclipses the financial considerations.
"There are a lot of easier ways to make money, but it teaches me so much that it's worth it," says Jonathan Epstein, a section leader in Math Ar.
Charles C. Hurd '83 sees teaching AS 11 as "the opportunity to pass on what little I know in my field." Hurd adds that computer science is "an interesting field, but it lends itself easily to a very individualistic career--teaching is one way of breaking out of that."
David Epstein says that even working as the head teaching fellow for AS 10, "I make less than I make when I work in private industry." He adds, "it takes up an incredible amount of time, but I find that the more things that I'm doing, the better my grades are."
Students taught by other students appreciate their accessibility and recent experience, but once the subjects covered move beyond the elementary, some problems can crop up.
One junior who is taking Biology 7b to fulfill a requirement expresses some dissatisfaction with his section leader, a senior. He admits, however, that he does not typify the makeup of the class.
"I guess for your basic sophomore or freshman it's probably not that bad--but for me to be in a section taught by an undergrad is not at all appropriate," he says, adding that in a course of this nature an undergraduate has "vastly more limited knowledge than a professor or grad student would--there are definitely areas in which you just can't ask him a question."
Overall, students teaching and being taught enjoy the fact that they are so close--though some teaching fellows feel that the ease with which they can be telephoned, sometimes at odd hours, is a disadvantage.
Although the administration has no official policy on the practice. Verba says he is presently looking into a sort of monitoring system--not of, but for the undergraduate teaching fellows. He says the administration is "concerned over the time the teachers put in--I want to make sure that we don't have people doing that kind of teaching at the expense of their own progress."
Henry Rosovsky, dean of the Faculty, sums up the impressions of almost everyone involved with undergraduate teaching fellows. "I think that under carefully controlled circumstances, these are some of the best people we have."
'Under carefully controlled circumstances, these are some of the best people we have.' - Henry Rosovsky, dean of the Faculty