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5673 Posts
This is one of the biggest problems in academia. There is a saying -
When you graduate and become an Asst. Lecturer (sorta like a TA), you can teach most of the courses offered by the department.
When you get your Masters, you can teach 3 - 4 courses.
When you get your PhD, you can teach one or two, if you're lucky. 
As a young part-timer myself, let me just say that we all live with this problem constantly hanging over our heads. We teach for senior staff, we grade papers for them, we take their classes when they cant, and we work long and hard, only to get dropped when there are things like budget cuts. The most we can do is to get out there, get qualified, and get hired in a position where dropping us isn't an option. I hope your professor does that, and that you get to see him again in a few years. Good teachers aren't made, they're born, and it would be a shame if something like this discouraged him from getting back into academia, because it's one institution that really needs more people like him.
Having said that, academically successful people can be good teachers, and when they are, they're really, really good. Not everyone is a good teacher though, and it's up to the relevant department to know where they should put each person. If I had to choose an experienced professor versus a young lecturer though, and this is assuming they were both good teachers, I'd take the experienced one any day. In fact, most universities often put their most experienced people for first year courses, and I personally think that makes sense, given that they can teach well of course.
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i'm not too worried about his future. i'm just selfish. plus, most part-time professors that teach here work in the field concurrently while teaching, it's what makes their teaching style much more appealing and practical. while many of the full-time professors have done nothing but taught classes for years and years and as admirable as that may be it doesn't seem to work out well. i mean, even they seem to get sick of teaching the same thing over and over for years on end, and it definitely shows.
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Something I have definitely noticed is that the best professors tends to be the ones working toward their PH.D while teaching.
I actually had one of these and he was working on his dissertation at the same time as he was teaching that semester and man I have never seen someone so passionate about a subject in my life.
He knew what he was talking about and he knew how to teach it... world needs more people like that.
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On August 13 2009 03:23 ChaseR wrote:Show nested quote +My prospective professor was a young part-timer who actually works in the field, which in my experience, tends to be the formula for the best teachers. I know this because I've had him, and similar teachers before. However, I suppose for "obvious" reasons, being a new part-time professor means you're one of the first to be lined up for the firing squad, while older or full-time professor get priority.
Here's the goddamn problem. All the full-time professors suck. Most of these full-time professors are people who got their PhD in some semi-related field 20+ years ago and wrote some paper about it. They may, at some point, have worked in the field but have not for a very long time (which is even longer in the technology field). I don't understand the necessity of having an academically successful person be a teacher. It is not, at all, relevant to students, nor is it done in their best interest.
Those who live their live by the absurd rules and standards of academia will only live to know academia. Their classes will have a ridiculously stupid grading system, while learning and relevance become secondary to maintaining the purity of the academic system of points and grades. It's bullshit and everyone knows it; but the only people suffering are the students. I like your points, and as far as the state of California being in deep economically shit well you do have this man trying to get things right by raising taxes and cut, cut, cutting budgets to pay the debts but that was a few months old news in the paper, I honestly don't really know much about the situation. Anyway I also agree 100% with what Daigomi said, it's sort of how I feel about them to.
The state senate is making it very hard for him to work. The reality is that Giant Douche (aka Gray Davis, the former state governor) fucked California hard in the ass.
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