The heart of what makes me a good teacher – of what makes me enjoy teaching so much – is that I assume that every single person is capable of/excited to use logic. I never assume that someone does not have serious curiosity that they can 100% use to follow a logical or interesting conclusion. I like to guess where ideas will go and help a student clarify them for those of us living outside of their heads to understand. At the heart of the (at times stupidly) friendly disposition I’ve had my whole life is my deeply rooted conviction that every single person has the capacity to be both extremely brilliant and a friend who has the best intentions until proven otherwise.
I do not think that everyone should be like this. My husband works with kids to help them dampen this disposition as a school psychologist. It is not an evolutionarily advantageous outlook. But I think it is what makes me a good teacher. I think it is also why I like the work of teaching so much more than the work of research. I like those puzzles, too, but working one-on-one with a person’s thoughts or even one-to-500 peoples' thoughts is so much more satisfying to me than trying to tease the meaning out of data and then taking the time to polish those findings into something others can use. I just want to implement what I’ve learned into continuous improvement of my practice.
Interestingly, I am realizing that this is not an evolutionarily advantageous orientation for academic communities, either! For the impatience above and the anxiety many who know me know well, I don’t publish. At all. However, I will talk to every single group who asks about teaching and learning. I will guest lecture in classes and present in teaching sessions at conferences. I enjoy these discussions so much that I even like helping to lead them with people who care about teaching and learning at Purdue. I am now working to become comfortable sharing these ideas in ink with those who may benefit in any way from my ideas and teaching shenanigans.
Teaching any form of critical thinking right now is more anxiety-inducing than I’ve ever experienced. That is saying something as a former graduate student social problems instructor in North Carolina when the state was infamously passing “bathroom bills.” If I am feeling this way after more than 10 years teaching social problems and social inequality under my belt, I know so many others must feel this tension standing in front of their lecture halls and prepping their lessons, too. If there is anything I can do to help you – even if it is just seeing that someone else is trying to do their best to teach critical thinking skills and/or sociology in the US in 2025 is here, too – that would make posting this – and the bananapants anxiety fallout for doing it - worth it!
First Footnote: I promise that I don’t teach my students to overuse em-dashes.
Second Footnote: I find thought processes fascinating and I really don’t care - within reasonable limits - what your ideas are or how you are currently putting them together. I just want to help you clarify them, test them, and learn to discuss them with others.
To me, the reasonable lowest limit for a thought experiment is that you acknowledge the humanity of everyone in your thought process. I also tend to favor those that prioritize the wellbeing of animals and the environment, as well. I believe that historical, cultural, and scientific evidence support these values, too. I can comfortably say this with confidence after an entire life immersed in them. I have and always will be a voracious bookworm :)
Third - and I think last - Footnote: Posting this AND keeping it up really is going to cause a ton of anxiety but I am going to do it because I fully stand behind what I’ve written. It is a reflection of the fantastic teaching and learning environments where I’ve learned how to be a teacher - NC State’s Sociology Department, Meredith College’s Sociology Department, the NC Governor’s School, and so many different pockets of Purdue since I joined the sociology department in 2017.
I want to support these kinds of spaces as best I can. These are the spaces where some of us are lucky enough (Teaching Professor really is my Unicorn Job!) to spend the majority of our workday (and most of our mental space) helping students 1) become more certain of themselves, 2) clarify their outlook on the world, 3) iteratively practice articulating and supporting their own well-informed arguments, and 4) sharpening their ability to effectively communicate their ideas.
Revision 1: adding categories
Revision 2: adding a “d” the title from “rafting my annual review…”
