According to PrawfsBlawg: Things to ask (or not to ask) your new prawfs, someone actually asked newly minted Prof. Leib,
“Professor Leib, many of us are concerned that you’ve never taught a day in your life. What do you have to say about that?”
It’s a really dumb question. First, because it’s too late to do anything about it. Second, because new teachers are sometimes at their best — fresh with new ideas from practice or the academy, full of energy, innocent of the mind-numbing horrors of faculty meetings.
Then, again, some of us improve. I think (hope) I probably teach better now than when I started (and I had a tiny amount of pre-law school teaching experience), in part because I have a slightly more realistic sense of how much (little) can be accomplished in a semester. Perhaps it’s all reversion towards the mean.
…consumers should know what they’re paying for — even consumers of educational services.
Plenty of sub-par ‘teachers’ pose as fully-qualified educational-servers.
A piano-teacher should not be judged on how well he plays the piano — but how well his students play …
and same applies to ALL teachers.
Jeez, how did i know you were a professor???? Well, I’m not, and that may explain my answer to that question, because if a ball like that was handed to me, I would score a touchdown with it, and I assure you, the rest of the semester would keep them breathless. Gawd, are they easy!!!!!! But that’s how I see it, from my years on the floor getting my degree in hands-on experience!