\tThere\u2019s a little bit of irony in the title of my blog but also a little bit of despair, as you can see from many of my postings, about the sad fact that teaching is not always as joyful as it should be. Yet, this is exactly what it is when it works well, joyful indeed, so this time I\u2019m celebrating.<\/p>\n
\tI\u2019ve just marked 26 longish papers (2,500 words, standard conference measure) on villainy and heroism for my segment of the Cultural Studies module within the MA in Comparative Literature and Literary Theory. It\u2019s been tough, because as usual I had very little time (just two days, more papers and exams coming in next Monday…) but it\u2019s also been a pleasure, which is rare. In the best cases, I\u2019ve even learned, which is the highest praise a teacher can give a student. Well done!!<\/p>\n
\tThe problem is that I can\u2019t apply any of the strategies that have worked well for this class to other classes, as the success of these strategies does not depend on my teaching but on the students\u2019 willingness to learn. It is true that we, teachers, work at a higher standard when our teaching is received with interest but, if this is the key, then it\u2019s not my merit at all but the students\u2019. They\u2019ve listened patiently and they\u2019ve applied very well what I lectured on to their own papers, choosing to focus on a variety of very interesting texts. Again, all of it is their merit. I\u2019m the same teacher, with my well-known limitations, in all my subjects but, then, some work beautifully (at least for me!) and some don\u2019t. The difference, that\u2019s the inevitable conclusion, are the students.<\/p>\n
\tThis particular class has no common denominator, which is peculiar, except that they\u2019re all in the same MA. They come from very different BAs and from a variety of countries; only 5 have the UAB \u2018Licenciatura\u2019 taught by practically the same teachers that teach in the MA. I\u2019d say they\u2019re exceptional if it weren\u2019t because it\u2019s the fourth time I see this exceptionality. Perhaps the MA is exceptional in that it attracts plenty of intellectual energy focused on reading, though no teacher can say whether this will turn out to be the last flare of the dying pre-Bologna system or a constant stream that will survive the mounting ravages on education.<\/p>\n
\tI feel, it\u2019s odd to say, well used by this class. They\u2019ve made the most of me, as a resource funded with public money and, of course, by their own money, and I think that this is what all students need: an awareness that we, teachers, are resources they should exploit for their own intellectual growth. Students who cheat, who don\u2019t work, who don\u2019t care are simply wasting the resources others could use better but also, and this is where they show that they don\u2019t deserve a university education, they are not making enough of the possibilities offered to them.<\/p>\n
\tAnyway, today I\u2019m satisfied. Thanks, students!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
There\u2019s a little bit of irony in the title of my blog but also a little bit of despair, as you can see from many of my postings, about the sad fact that teaching is not always as joyful as it should be. Yet, this is exactly what it is when it works well, joyful […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":98,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,26,34],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-116","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","category-post-graduate","category-teaching-tools-and-rules"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/webs.uab.cat\/saramartinalegre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/webs.uab.cat\/saramartinalegre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/webs.uab.cat\/saramartinalegre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webs.uab.cat\/saramartinalegre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/98"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webs.uab.cat\/saramartinalegre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=116"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/webs.uab.cat\/saramartinalegre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/webs.uab.cat\/saramartinalegre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=116"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webs.uab.cat\/saramartinalegre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=116"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webs.uab.cat\/saramartinalegre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=116"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}