Not the cleverest argument I've ever made

I've been dealing with end of semester issues the last week or so, as well as a paper that I need to finish, as well as painting the house, as well as illnesses in the immediate family. Hence the silence; my apologies.

I've also engaged in a few discussions in Bede's group on religion and science. I'm happy with most of what I wrote, but I probably should have phrased one better. While trying to explain to a fellow why Christianity does not eschew the use of reason in understanding and explaining morality, I wrote,

I certainly won't trust my own reason too much.

Sigh.

It's what I meant to say. It explains exactly what I meant it to say. It's a perfect explanation, given what I think of myself and my tendency to make mistakes. It's also an idiotic thing to say when you're trying to convince someone that Christians don't eschew reason. Just go ahead & place that L on my forehead...

In a different context, I've been teaching a senior-level course in Modern Algebra. I taught it at a pretty high, theoretical level. It's the first time I taught algebra, and honestly I think I did a smack-down good job of it. I also think that they did a much better job of it than they think they did, but I graded them very severly and exactingly, so their averages aren't as high as they're used to. I also know that, in spite of doing a "smack-down good job of it," I will do some big things quite differently next time.

Anyway, a student told me after she turned in her exam that my class "scared" her. Good! I exclaimed.

Good? she asked, her eyes widening with shock.

Well, yes, I persisted. If you go through your university studies without ever being scared, then you haven't been challenged.

I don't think I convinced her. (Incidentally, this is a student of whom I initially had a poor impression, because of spotty attendance and things like that. However, she turned around and did quite well, even excelling sometimes, which gave me a very good impression of her. So we're not talking about some witless wonder here. Indeed, this class was full of surprises.)

On another occasion, a different student in the same class confided in me that some of the other students were didn't like me much. Fine, I answered. I'm not paid to be liked.

You just know that this is going to come back and bite me in the rear when it's time to receive student evaluations. To wit, I received an email this morning:

Be honest, I think your teaching is really bad. Perhaps, it is because you are new here. Anyway, I
hope you will do it better and better in the coming semester.

Now, this doesn't perturb me much; he did respectably well on the exam, so he learned quite a bit in spite of my really bad teaching. Rather, I am mystified by the choice of words, "new here," as if teaching for ten out of the past fourteen years at other universities explains succinctly why my teaching is really bad.

That said, I think I wrote rather anxiously about the quality of my teaching over a year ago. (I can't find the precise entry, but I'm sure I did.) The student may have a point, but since he didn't elaborate on the reasons I am "really bad," I can't evaluate what prompted his judgment. Is it because I was reluctant to give high grades unless someone really merited them? Is it because I assigned too many difficult, theoretical problems where the students needed to spend a lot of time studying just to understand what it asked? Is it because I spent lecture time peppering the students with questions instead of writing notes on the chalkboard? I dunno.

As I said, the email mystifies me. I decided the wisest course of action was not to reply. As you can see from what I wrote above, I'm not often the cleverest person, and I don't want to write something that will contribute to my awful foot-in-mouth disease.

One soldiers on.