Well,
I'm an oddball.  I have known since the age of 5 what I wanted to do and
have worked towards it.

I have learned three things over the years: 1) The teachers need to present
the material in a way to make it interesting enough to keep thier students
heads off the comfortable pillow that a pile of theory books make.  By the
way, if a pile of theory books seem like a comfortable pillow, the
instructor should ask "what am I doing wrong?" first, then talk to the
student.  2)You can teach all you want but at some point the fledgling needs
to leave the nest.  I firmly believe that one learns best by doing.  3) It
does not matter what field someone works in or wheather they are in academia
or not.  If an individual is not self motivated, that person will most
likely not improve in whatever they do, because they become comfortable in
doing things the same old way.

I'm lazy.  I admit it.  However, I know that if I want archaeology to be
more than just a job to me, I have to push myself to look at and do things
outside of the workplace.  That includes the occasional foray into what to
me is the most boring of subjects "theory".

Well, that's my Monday morning rant.
I hope y'all have a nice day!

William E. McAlexander Jr.
-----Original Message-----
From: Ned Heite [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Monday, November 24, 2003 6:11 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: half-assed archaeologists


At 12:44 AM -0500 11/24/03, geoff carver wrote:
>i dunno - it should be good - if only the profs who are supposed to
>teach it knew what they were talking about, maybe that would help...?

Amen, Brother Carver! Look back on your own educational odyssey. Were
the subjects boring? Or were the teachers incompetent?

Name any subject, and you'll find people who think it's boring. A
similar number will think it's really neat.  Why?

Well, I hated trigonometry. I struggled through three trig courses
(two remedial) and still didn't get it. Then I was fortunate enough
to work with an old surveyor with a ninth-grade education who made
math come alive for me. He loved the subject, and ever since I have
been fascinated with geometry and trigonometry.

It's all in the teacher. Any subject can be interesting if the
teacher is worth his or her salary. Unfortunately, academia is not
exclusively peopled with interesting people.

A student's course schedule is sort of academic russian roulette.
Unfortunately, the bullets too frequently are distributed by academic
bureaucrats with little or no reference to the needs of students.

Get some boring old place-holder with tenure, and the results will be
inevitable. Get a grad-assistant kid who just half-learned the
subject last semester, and you can't expect positive results. Get the
course nobody wants to teach, and guess who is the chosen instructor.

Blame for student boredom in any subject lies entirely with the teaching of
it.
--
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For any awkward moment, in any conversation,
there is always an appropriate, or insanely
inappropriate, limerick.