Alis Volat Propriis

Kittens can’t regulate their own body temperature. That’s why they pile up.

Cats see us as colony members.

Masha saw a kitten that was on its own, no mommy, no other kittens to cuddle with. She instinctively knew that was a cold kitten. She knew that a kitten alone on a cold night was very likely to die. Because a kitten would have died too.

So, all she was doing was what any good colony member does - protecting the abandoned kitten. Then when the abandoned kitten’s mommy didn’t come back, she called the rest of the colony for help.

People have this bizarre idea that housecats don’t have a social sense. They do, and it saved this kid’s life. And possibly Masha’s too, as life on the streets is dangerous for a kitty.

Quite a few professors are so unbelievably confident in their teaching abilities that they refuse to accept any criticisms. A lot of the responses these professors got are mean and unnecessary, but a lot of them don't seem to be taking it on. Something has pushed these students to say what they said. One of the professors even said "A student once climbed out the window to get out of my class" like its a funny joke. How that isn't a wake up call for them, I will never know. If that is happening to you, you need to reevaluate what you're doing.

A lot of professors have never had any formal teaching education, and are placed into these positions purely because of the quality of what they do in their field. Just because someone is a world-reknowned archaeologist and expert in Ancient Egyptian, doesn't mean they are qualified to teach. How would someone coming straight from the field know how to cater to students of differing learning abilities, without formal education on the matter? Why is it that for students aged 4-18 teachers need to complete years worth of training in classrooms and at university to be considered worthy to teach, but once that student has entered university it's their fault if they don't understand the information that's just being read to them from a textbook the professor wrote?

The most fustrating part, I find, was when a professor of mine that I'm fairly close with told me that when the evals, which are anonymous, come in, the professors make a game of matching the negative comments with the failed students. They don't take on anything that is written and brush it off as "oh, they're only mad bc they failed." This is embarrassing and just because you have tenure does NOT mean you are exempt from learning and bettering yourself. I've struggled through years of university. I've had a professor for Egyptian publicly shame students who asked for further explanations. I failed a class due to personal reasons and when I asked the professor just to tell me where I went wrong on the exam so when I redo the class I can do better and instead of answering he told me that I should only come back when I'm prepared to commit. It's been 4 years and I've had these professors over and over again with no change to their behaviour or teaching pattern.

With a reply from Joanna Grossman that says "I had a colleague once who received this evaluation 'If I had only six months to live, I would want it to be spent in your class because it would feel like an eternity'"

The only teaching related experience you usually get is TA-ing as a grad student, and students applying to grad school are encouraged to try and find schools that require less TA hours and/or to try to get a research assistant fellowship instead of a teaching assistant fellowship so that they can spend less time TA-ing and more time doing research (also research assistantships are often seen as more prestigious and/or get better stipends).

Recently I was talking with my current PI about how I applied to a specific school because they also have a chemical education program (ie: research into and courses related to how to teach chemistry and how students best learn and understand chemistry) because i wanted to be a good teacher and mentor. He told me it was a noble goal, but a complete waste of time. He said I could be a good teacher without it and that in the future when I tried to get a job as a professor most schools would actually consider me LESS qualified because of it, because they'd see any time I spend on chemical education as wasted time I could have spent on research.

I had like one, maybe two friends who were all like FUCK YEAH YOU PAINT IT WHATEVER COLOR YOU WANT, PURPLE BEDROOMS ARE AWESOME.

But when they actualy saw the finished bedroom, every single one of them was like, “Oh yeah, that’s really pretty.” (Well, the ones who supported me from the beginning were more like WOOHOO.)