A Department Meeting In Which I Actually Learned Something

One aspect of his or her job that nearly everyone dreads is meetings.  That is one thing I don't miss about the full-time faculty position I had.


Department and committee meetings in just about any kind of business are tedious and boring, and seem to accomplish little.  But academic  department and committee meetings are a particular kind of purgatory for the sheer pettiness and egotism displayed in them.


However, things are revealed, if unintentionally, when the door closes.  I recall one meeting in particular, in the midst of all of the tooth-gnashing about revising the college's core curriculum as well as some of its majors.


At schools like York College, the majority of the English majors plan to teach at some level or another.  However, nearly everything about the major and department, including the advisement we were supposed to give, were oriented toward getting students to go to graduate school in English or some related subject.


Some professors--usually, interestingly enough, the younger ones--think they are "rescuing" students from careers in business or government, or from law school, when they encourage them to take up "the life of the mind."  I can honestly say that even at my most idealistic (in terms of the academic world, anyway), I never bought into that idea. I have always been happy to see students pursue what would make them happy, and I am glad that some recognize the value of reading great books in helping them achieve their goals. Or, they want one career or another and simply love to read and write.  Actually, I have always been happier to see such students than the ones who want to perpetuate their schooling.


Anyway, one of the profs who was always steering students into graduate school--and who was a coordinator--said something that I would have found simply candid coming from someone else.  However, when he said it, he revealed his mendacity.  I suppose I should be grateful for that.


One of the reasons, he said, for convincing students to go to graduate schools if they want to teach is that "the education program is worthless" at the college.  He wasn't being hyperbolic:  The department didn't have all of the courses students needed in order to be certified as high school teachers in New York City. 


However, he said, the college ought to offer the necessary courses because "teaching is one of the few actual jobs you can get with an English major."  If the college didn't revamp its education curriculum, he said, students would change majors--or change schools.


The meeting was typical in just about every other way.  However, at this particular meeting, I actually learned something.  To be more precise, it confirmed a couple of things I'd always suspected--about the curriculum as well as at least one faculty member.  I suppose I should be grateful for that.