Frank wrote:
On 8/27/2019 1:43 PM, Bill wrote:
Frank wrote:
Grad school was paid for with a teaching
assistantship.Â* Pretty hard to do this today.


I know I left out the earlier part of Frank's paragraph.
I just wanted to mention that departments are staffing the
majority of their teaching position with graduate teaching
assistantships. For a large department, maybe 2/3 of the
courses are taught that way. That translates into there not
being very many real academic positions available to students
who do earn a terminal degree (like a PhD). Having witnessed it
firsthand, it's really disrespectful. It's mostly about the
$$$.... I guess this is a separate, but admittedly widespread
problem (think Walmart).

That is interesting.Â* My assistantship had me teaching labs which
was mostly just babysitting.Â* Courses were taught by professors
but my last year, when I had a fellowship, they wanted me to
teach undergrad organic chemistry but I turned them down because
it meant no extra money.

This was a private school but thinking back at U of Del. there
were graduate students teaching more courses.

The problem is most-present in departments that have very high
teaching loads, like English and Math. It has become an
"epidemic" problem since the mid to late 90's. In departments
like History, there often isn't enough teaching to be done to
give teaching assistantships. Graduate students are more likely
to be graders for regular faculty in the department, for
instance, or run labs for them, as in your case.

These days you would be smart to choose to teach the organic
chemistry class you mentioned--so that you could talk about it in
your job interviews. 2 candidates, one with demonstrated teaching
experience, one without: One has a distinct advantage.