To the Editor:
Please check in with the "hot" professors 30 years and 30 pounds later, and see whether they would still lament their easy adoration and sky-high student ratings ("Professors: Hot at Their Own Risk," The Chronicle, August 8). I was a hottie 30 years and 50 pounds ago. I was pestered by demands for dates. One of my student evaluations said, "If she would have me, I would marry her." I never got a rating under 5 on a 5-point scale. I thought teaching was so simple and I had a natural gift.
Now I am a better teacher (with knowledge of active learning and up-to-date pedagogy) and I get lower ratings (4.5 to 4.8). A few years ago I heard a student say in the hall, "I have a fantastic professor! He's really young!"
Bunny Paine-Clemes
Professor of Liberal Arts
California Maritime Academy
Vallejo, Calif.
Comments
1. olmsted - September 08, 2010 at 11:22 am
Hot? In California? 30yr ago? And blessed with that first name? I can only imagine the dreams Hugh must have fueled in your students. Kudos for being hot, today, in a new way.
2. 11126724 - September 08, 2010 at 12:06 pm
So, who thinks that student evaluations of faculty have value?
3. rightwingprofessor - September 09, 2010 at 12:10 pm
what the heck is a "professor of liberal arts"?
4. lenejoe11 - September 13, 2010 at 09:16 pm
sdsdsdsd