Posted by js on May 04, 2003 at 01:29:10:
In Reply to: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: too many ? posted by More disadvantage on May 03, 2003 at 23:19:47:
As he is easily arguably a "national treasure" I would deem any regular interaction with Richard Killmer invaluable.
As to your situation, I've been there/done that/and sympathize with the toughness of the situation. However, I still think a once-a-week adjunct can (if antennae are "up") size up situations with this minimal contact. In one startling example of this, I noted immediately was that one of my students (who only showed up for ONE lesson halfway though a semester) had a pager than was constantly buzzing and a serious chronic case of the "sniffles". In addition, when I looked up his schedule on the university website he was enrolled the following five "courses": jazz band, tuba lessons, weight training, swimming, and concert band. I asked one of the other brass faculty if they had ever suspected that this student might be a crack dealer and they looked at me like they thought I was crazy, saying "He couldn't be! He's such a great kid! (???). As someone who owns a business an has dealt with the public for (at that time) over twenty years, in that particular situation I believe that I was more able to be attuned to these sorts of things than most university faculty who generally see the same people in the same situations from week-to-week and "get used to" accepting odd behavior patterns from students. Other general examples would include my ability to "level" with students in much more "frank" ways than the Monday-Friday faculty, since I didn't have to really "live" with the students all week.