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He Wouldn't Do It Over Again

Guest Columnist

Murphy's law of GSAS: enjoyable work expands to fill ALL available time. I've kept in touch with most of my students and have written their recommendations for fellowships, medical school, law school, graduate school--you name it. More necessary and enjoyable work; more time to put off finishing.

For me, Ec 10 became part of a crusade to expose Harvard undergraduates to good teaching. They certainly do not get too much of it from tenured faculty, or so they tell me. It is in this quest I have become immensely confused. Good teaching clearly is valued by tenured faculties at major research universities only slightly higher than good penmanship.

The Danforth Center (now the Derek Bok Center) does an extensive and excellent job training teaching fellows and tutorial leaders. I wonder how many junior or senior faculty have ever been videotaped? Some professors refuse to distribute CUE guide questionnaires because they claim they cannot devote class time for them. That's a good one. Afraid of something?

If I had to do it again, and if I had wanted a position at a top university, I should have concentrated on my research only--no teaching.

It does strike me as ironic that extensive, quality undergraduate teaching experience does not mean much in the hiring process at many top universities. Maybe that's because most of their tenured faculties don't know what it is. But it's not their fault; it wasn't what got them tenured.

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If any of my former students are reading this, they know how much I love to teach, and how much I've enjoyed teaching Ec 10. I don't regret any of my time in the classroom; it's helped me keep a sense of perspective and just a bit of my sanity intact.

Last year, I joined Mather House as the resident economics tutor, and that position brought into focus the real reason GSAS exists: to keep the students away from the tenured faculty! I sign study cards, I advise young economics concentrators, I run review sessions for the major courses, I talk about career plans, I write recommendations.

I really wish the faculty were more involved with these undergraduates. Not because I think it's their job (which I do), but because it's very rewarding. Without sounding like the catalog, these students are intelligent, vibrant, driven young people who love to talk about their interests.

It has taken years off my life living in close contact with them, and I don't think my time in GSAS would have been the same without them. Maybe the house system took a page out of the Business School's book--the resident tutors make a perfect middle management staff.

Well, in perfect Faulknerian style, I have shared a few impressions and memories of what GSAS has meant to me. I don't regret a minute of my time at Harvard, but if I had it to do over, I wouldn't have come to graduate school.

How much of that sentiment is endemic to Harvard? Probably not much. After all, Harvard did offer me the chance basically to teach my own class for three years, and to do the sort of advising usually reserved for deans or professors.

I think the key to my survival has been trying to balance necessities and amenities. I'm not teaching this year because the scales have tipped a bit too far to one side. Maybe if I'm particularly diligent, I will see some of my peers back in June for graduation.

Uh oh...What if it's drizzling.

David Johnson has taught Ec 10 for three years.

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