[!@#$%!]

Originally Posted by Severian

My teaching experience is limited to TA work, manning small 100 level psych classes and instructing senior stats labs (oh, and junior high and HS subbing), so I never had the pleasure of having a student ask me anything like this. But if confronted with a question like that, I'd probably be really nice and explain how assignments and tests are weighted, how attendance and participation factor in, etc. Because the "customer" really does want an A, and unless you're a tenured prof., or working at a private school, you probably want/need them to get an A even more. Their scores will essentially determine your value to the institution. Less so in college than in k-12 perhaps, but it's still going to factor in somewhere.

It basically turns teaching into a commission job in the long run. An organized, big-picture sales gig. Man, that's a depressing thought.

I was a TA technically but they called me professor because I handled everything from designing the course to consoling girls after their abortions and all that goes in between, like prepping lectures and writing/grading exams.

And I know what you're saying about answering those questions, but-- that's all in the syllabus! So whoever asks hasn't bothered reading it. And I'd even walk them through it on day 1! But on the whole I did enjoy the experience. It's the... being part of a system, with institutional goals, and being pushed towards them like the police department in "the wire", that I didn't like; if that makes sense.