Your voice | Letters to the editor

System of standards in place for TAs

To the editor:

Let me correct some misconceptions voiced in your recent staff editorial, "Making TAs better," (10/2/2007) regarding the preparation of teaching assistants at Penn.

Contrary to the editorial, there are, in fact, basic standards of preparation for new teaching assistants that apply on a school-by-school basis.

In the School of Arts and Sciences, all new TAs must participate in a school-wide three-day TA Training Program before they teach. The only exceptions are in the cases of the few departments which offer their own programs deemed to be equally intensive.

And, while the SAS program has expanded and evolved over the years, it is hardly new: Incoming TAs have been required to participate since 1991.

It is true that teaching is difficult to master: Good teachers improve over years, not simply days.

But that does not diminish the value of the existing program. New SAS TAs attend workshops on running their classes, on grading, on student-learning issues, and on resources at Penn, among other sessions.

Participants also teach a mini-class and critique their peers doing so. And yes, this year we did invite members of Student Committee on Undergraduate Education to discuss the ways they asstudents learn best.

This program does not mean all TAs will be great teachers right away. It does not mean there is not more that can be done to help TAs develop (in fact, the Center for Teaching and Learning offers over 50 additional teaching workshops a year for interested graduate students).

But it does mean that the TAs undergraduates encounter have already started the process of developing as teachers. How to improve that process - and not the need to invent a program that already exists - is the most helpful topic for conversation.

Bruce Lenthall Director, Center for Teaching and Learning Students' study habits are just fine

To the editor:

In response to the opinion column "Work hard, play . nah," (10/2/2007) I'd like to commend the author for discovering the meaning of human existence but highlight the disturbed feeling I get from her bold implication that I am not human (and in fact a turtle) for studying and somehow contribute to a ruthless cutthroat environment by wanting to do well in a class.

By labeling last-minute cram sessions as cutthroat, the author only propagates the false stereotype of Ivy League students as backstabbing saboteurs. She fails to point out one of key reasons for so many all-nighters at Huntsman: procrastination.

And let's not forget Penn has nearly 10,000 undergrads, and to generalize all of them as inhuman does a huge injustice to the majority who do lead enjoyable lives.

And finally, what is so bad about doing pre-exam studying anyways?

I agree we should all take the time to smell the roses, but let's face it, we're students. Someone is paying almost $50,000 a year for us to be here, so the least we can do is to show a little appreciation by doing our best.

Bo Peng College junior

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