One of the great misconceptions of university professors is that they work only nine months out of the year and have off the other three. While there is some truth to this idea--let's be honest there are few professions that provide as good a quality of life as university teaching (speaking from one who was in ministry for many years--there is no comparison), it is a gross oversimplification. The fact is that most of us have gotten our educations at a high cost financially and will be paying back our student loans for the foreseeable future. In addition, while Christian higher education is not at the low end of annual incomes, it is certainly not much more than solidly middle class, at least at the start. What's more, with the cost of living skyrocketing (we have the added benefit/burden of living in a city) it is almost impossible for a family to live on a professor's salary alone. One's income must be supplemented in various ways. For our family that means that Karla must work and I must find additional income teaching in the summer. This summer I have taught three classes: Introduction to the Bible, Ministry with Families and Suicide Greek. I am in the middle of the Greek course right now which goes five days a week 8:30 AM to 12:30 PM. Needless to say there isn't much time for reading, research, writing and blogging--which is why I have been conspicuously absent. I would hope in the future that my salary would rise high enough that I could do less teaching and more research and writing in the summer's, but that doesn't look like it will happen for a very long time.
From a different perspective, I do really enjoy teaching--especially Greek--and I have had a very good summer, although it has gone very fast.
3 comments:
So say we all...
I hear you bro. I've taught an extra 12 credit hours (4 classes) this summer as well!
Amen amen. A few months ago the Chronicle had a great article about this very thing, and I commented here.
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