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[profesoracr]

I hadn't read any of the negative backlash about Kelly White's first column, but I have to say that although I love teaching, the fall semester was particularly challenging, and the mental image created by the following paragraph gave me a good laugh:

I'm not whining here. I am facing the realization that I do not have the personality for teaching. Instead of wanting to help and nurture students, I want to kick the little buggers into the deep end and see who bobs up.

Regarding the last statement of the most recent article, I used to lament that I had to do research in order to teach at the kind of institution that I prefer.  But contrary to my expectations when I started my PhD program, I've found that I actually enjoy my research (though teaching is still my first choice by far), and it makes me a better teacher.

Let's face it; there are people who love teaching that are really terrible teachers.  They're nice people, and they genuinely care about their students, but their classes are the most boring waste of time I've experienced in my entire educational career.

Kelly, I wish you the best of luck, and with your sense of professionalism and dedication, I'm sure that you'll do a great job teaching. 

[srednivashtar]

I'm not Kelly White, but I could just as easily have written the same column.

I had a lot of teaching experience in grad school.  The first time I did it, I went into it with the expectation that I was really going like it.  During subsequent semesters, my attitude slowly changed to "I will like it this time, dammit!" Didn't work well, though.

This surprises people who have met me.  I'm extroverted, I'm good at making presentations, and I always took my teaching responsibilities seriously.  My teaching reviews ranged from decent to excellent.  (In my opinion, my reviews related mostly to whether the course was popular than to whether I was doing well -- reviews tended to be similar for all instructors in a course --  but then again no one ever said teaching reviews were objective.)

Like Kelly White, I'd love to be in a situation where teaching was the professional price of being able to do research.  I know I can do it, and do it well, although I don't love it.  However, I'm a bit of a "bent arrow" with regards to my unusual career path, and don't know how competitive I'll be for R1 jobs.  I'd be perfectly happy at a school that's considered second- or third-tier as long as it has a research and graduate program, but if I don't get a job that's at least 50% research within two years, I'll probably look for non-academic options.  I would miss the research terribly, but being a full-time teacher for the rest of my working life would be an emotional nightmare for me.

Incidentally, I think that teaching and research are completely independent callings.  Yes, they overlap in a lot of people.  Not surprising -- it's possible to love both cooking and doing one's own auto repairs.  It's just that universities have evolved with a history of expecting teachers and researchers to be one and the same, while mechanics aren't necessarily valued in the restaurant business.  :-)