That's a good word. It implies something more interesting than a mere problem.
After many years of not writing (and intermittent whining about it), I'm dabbling in writing again. Many of my recent weekend (and evening) activities have been chosen specifically to encourage this state of mind. The results are--less than impressive, but I knew it was going to take time to get back in practice, so that's fine.
The problem, of course, comes in the when. If I could turn the creative part of my brain off from 8-5, M-F, that would be good. (And from 7-11 on weekends, since that's when I do most of my freelance work.) Arrange that for me, 'k?
Bernie called this morning. He passed my comments to the Freethinker and now the Freethinker is asking, 'what next'? Bernie wanted to know what we should do (and how long it would either take me to do it, or to teach Lorna, his Harried Helper, to do it). I hate questions like that. Questions about teaching someone. I am a horrible teacher* and I am honest enough to admit it
Lorna, his Harried Helper, hasn't done anything to me--I've never even met her. Why should I inflict myself on her in a role I'm completely unsuited for? Also? This is not a "beginner" project. This is not a project for someone who has never even seen the software.
I sympathize with his desire to have this work done in-house, so he doesn't have to pay a free-lancer for it. I support the idea of me not being responsible for the potpourri of random clients he has coming on board. He and his Harried Helper can, as I've told him more than once, log in to the free online lessons and learn. But I don't teach.
I don't mind reorganizing the Freethinker's stuff for him, though. (Even though it means I'll actually have to go read his web pages.) Anticipating that this would come up, I already have copious notes on what should be done. Organizing is much more fun than management and the check should cover the last of my travel expenses from the end of February.
The next leaf in Bernie's potpourri is Portuguese And wants to advertise in that language,. I tried--I did try, to explain the difficulty of this to Bernie but I don't think I got through. I know--the numbers are the same, but the words matter.
Crazy man.
Also, he told me that I'm in first place in our brackets group--we had a fifteen minute conversation about games that I assume must have taken place in the last week or something and have I ever mentioned on the blog how much I hate having to fake my way through in-depth conversations about teams and players I've never heard of**--but I can't figure out how to go look at it all to see how this strange thing happened, so I can't explain it.
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* Seriously. "Here's the stuff. Just do it. If you have a question, search the web for an answer." That should be enough "teaching" for anyone.
** Some day I'm going to get caught doing that and someone's feelings will be hurt. (By the way, brackets are about basketball. Did you know that? I'm not sure I knew that before today.)
posted by AnneZook on 03.22.10 at 02:22 PM"Here's the stuff. Just do it. If you have a question, search the web for an answer." That should be enough "teaching" for anyone.
That's graduate school. Those of us who teach undergrads have to work a little harder than that....
posted by: Jonathan Dresner on 03.22.10 at 04:19 PM [permalink]That's just ridiculous.
I refuse to believe anyone could NEED more than access to a university library and the internet to learn practically anything (except math, which was invented by satan). They're just too lazy to do the work--read and think--on their own.
That's the early morning grouchy opinion of someone who spent too much time in undergrad classes listening to instructors go over kindergarten-level fundamentals instead of more interesting things.
posted by: Anne on 03.23.10 at 08:24 AM [permalink]time in undergrad classes listening to instructors go over kindergarten-level fundamentals instead of more interesting things.
Oh, I hated that as a student; I can tell you to this day which classes were like that.
I won't do it: I can't do it, honestly, not well. This poses a problem when I'm actually talking to kindergarteners, but otherwise I feel like my job is to model the higher-order thinking students are supposed to be developing, to give them something culled from my broader experience.
Still, you're right: a motivated student could take the textbook and syllabus and run with it, and learn an immense amount. That's why, I suppose, I have never had a problem doing directed readings: that's my model for learning anyway. My upper-division courses tend to be like that: read the material, and discuss; I do very little lecture, except on more esoteric stuff which isn't well-represented in the texts.
posted by: Jonathan Dresner on 03.23.10 at 12:15 PM [permalink]Exactly! You're the kind of instructor I always hoped to get--someone who understood that I was smart enough to read and comprehend the textbooks and who was interesting on building from that foundation. Someone who had something more to offer.
posted by: Anne on 03.24.10 at 10:29 AM [permalink]