Blog #7 College Cost Subsidizing

"At universities, introductory courses are generally taught by young, inexperienced teaching assistants, while Lone Star instructors are older and much more experienced. Students at Lone Star are getting excellent teachers at costs too cheap. I told my own students that they are being over subsidized. Not one disagreed, though they did not want to hear it."

While introductory courses, at SOME universities, are occasionally taught by young teaching assistants, the blanket statement of "At universities" implies all universities, and "are generally taught by teaching assistants" implies this is the rule, lacks any fact based evidence. In the same sentence, "Loan Star teachers are older" also lacks evidence. The average instructor, of my five classes this semester at Loan Star, is in his/her early 40's and I am older than ALL of them. The phrase "more experienced" compares the instructors at Loan Star to instructors at universities. There are more professors with PhD degrees and longer tenure at universities than there are at Lone Star. While comparing instructors, "excellent" instructors at Lone Star might better be termed "competent" or "capable" or even "qualified"."Costs too cheap" is relative to costs of universities solely. However, Lone Star is still a community college that does not command a larger price tag as it does not offer the degrees offered by universities. Very little honest feedback can be expected from students when they are "told" that they are over subsidized by their professor. I suspect the students hear little if lectures are painted with such a broad brush as outlined in this letter. A large number of these students are here to learn, get an Associates degree, and move on to a university to complete their education. Don't get me wrong, I plan on teaching at a community college in the near future. However the object is to educate students; not preclude their ability to attend by taking away the subsidizing.

blog #6

Bombs bursting in air (par 2)
A brain tumor (par 3)
Surgery (par3)
Girl not living with mother and step father anymore (par 9)
Girl threw up and disappeared from school (par 9)
Friendly custodian fired (par 9)
Teacher's husband had heart attack and died (par 9)
Arrested for selling drugs (par 10)
Shot himself in the woods (par 10)
Car full of boys crashed killing them (par 10)
Went to sleep and never woke up (par 11)
Professor lost two children (par 12)
Father grew ill (par 12)
Bitter divorce (par 12)
poor grades
grouchy teachers
exclusion from social group
Dateless weekend


Entropy
Laundry Saturday; dirty again Friday
Water flows till same level; then it can work no more
Wasting youth
Marriage partners too preoccupied to patch things up
State of our country
Relationship between nations
Took up the flute again
Randomness of international events
Lack of common purpose
Friendship, family, and economics fall apart
Children's rooms get messy
Wood rots
Metal rusts
People wrinkle
Mountains wear down
Flowers wither
Nuclei of atoms decay
Rundown subways
Worn out sidewalks
Torn down buildings
Cars break down
Refrigerators conk out
Need for root canal
Windows leak
Babysitters fail to show
Hair turns gray
Typewriters wear out
Houses need paint
Need for glasses
Sneakers develop holes