paying it forward

[aryanhwy]

When I was a senior in high school, I enrolled at the local community college as a high school special student, meaning I could take 6 credits a semester (which I petitioned to get increased on 7, so I could work on the student newspaper. This was very worthwhile, because it showed me beyond doubt I did not want to be a journalist). My first semester, I signed up for introduction to logic. I went in to it convinced I was going to fail. After all, hadn't my dad, the most logical person I knew, regularly reminded my mom and my sister and I that we were not very logical? (Turns out he was wrong. It's common sense we often lacked, not logic. :) )

By the end of the semester, 6 out of the 7 other students had come to me for tutoring, and I had already combed the UW-Madison course catalog to find what upper level logic courses I could take when I got there -- this was before I'd even applied, much less been accepted. Philosophy 510 was the one I had my eyes on: it was a junior level course, and had as its prerequisite the course I was taking (and whose credits would transfer with me.)

Coming in to university with 12 credits (the newspaper work didn't transfer), I blithely disregarded my advisor's recommendations to only take 12 my first semester, or MAYBE possibly 15, and signed up for 18 with the result that I had sophomore status by the start of my second semester. Between taking the max credits that semester as well as summer school, I knew I could have junior status by the start of the next year. But Phil 510 was offered only every other fall, alternating with Phil 511, and that was the one that came up the start of my second year. Being on track to graduate in 3 years, this meant my final fall was the only opportunity I'd have to take the course.

And then. I'm checking the timetable to register for courses, and I find out that for the first time in 10-15 years, Phil 510 wasn't scheduled for MWF 11:00, but rather MWF 8:50 -- the same time as 3rd semester Greek (MTWR 8:50), which I needed in order to graduate. I was crushed. I went to the professor (whom by then I'd had for quite a number of courses, at undergrad and graduate level), and told him "I've been waiting to take this course for THREE YEARS. Is there anything that can be done?"

And there was. He offered to meet with me once a week, go through three hours worth of lecture material in 1-1.5 hours, with the caveat that I had to do most of the work on filling in the gaps on my own. I leapt at the opportunity, and those weekly meetings were some of the most useful and productive of my undergrad career. (When, as a self-described math-phobe who never made it past pre-calc in high school finally proves the Chinese Remainder Theorem all by herself, it is AMAZING.)

One of the first things I did upon arriving in Durham was start putting out feelers for teaching a 3rd year formal logic course on the incompleteness theorems. One of the only prereqs for applying to the Master of Logic programme in Amsterdam is "knowledge of the completeness and incompleteness theorems", and I felt very strongly that any self-respecting philosophy programme should at least offer their students the possibility. And, given that the maths department has no logicians, maybe some math students would be interested, too. In fact, I was banking on them being interested, because in order to make this a viable course, I knew I need to get 10-12 students.

First, the course got scheduled 16-18, since uni timetabling neglected the fact that I'm a caregiver and shouldn't be scheduled after 17:00. Then it was switched to Friday 9-11, and I got a slew of students emailing: Every single maths student who would've taken the course had a clash with a required math module (stats, I think). I asked for it to be moved again, which the phil. dept. was willing to do even though the only free slot left overlapped the departmental seminar (which often overlapped with my logic class last year, so I've yet to go to more than two seminars, I think); unfortunately, a number of people STILL had clashes. We asked the maths department, hey, could you maybe consider moving some of your modules, since it's mostly YOUR students who want to take this? No. Too many modules, too difficult.

I finally got the rest of my course schedule sorted out last week, and realized I've got a nice big gap on Monday afternoons. Why didn't I do what my professor had done for me? So I emailed all the students who had clashes and asked if they were free on Mondays. If they were, I would be happy to duplicate the seminar and meet with them on Monday afternoons, covering the same material that we did in the actual seminar the Thursday before. A few said they might be able to make the second half of the seminars, or occasionally skip their clashing class to come to the full seminar. Some said they'd probably still want to come on Mondays. I've got a feeling I'll open up the offer to the Thursday crew as well. I'd go ahead and switch the entire thing to Mondays except that 13 people is just a few too many to fit in my office. (I met with a few today to talk them through what I am going to tell everyone else on Thursday, and one of them has already asked if I'm planning a 4th year follow-up. I'll have to talk to the math dept., since there are no 4th year philosophy classes, but if i could get half a dozen people for that, I'd certainly consider it.)

It feels good to be able to pay forward the incredible experience I had 13 years ago.

Comments

[madbaker.livejournal.com]

Good thought, especially framing as a return favor.

[aryanhwy.livejournal.com]

Maybe in another 15 years, it'll be one of them, with their students.

[wanderingpixie.livejournal.com]

If they could all make it to Mondays, it seems like you'd just need to find an available classroom :)

[aryanhwy.livejournal.com]

That's the trouble. It's pretty clear that uni timetabling won't be able to find us one, especially since the time we want (14:30-16:30) is nonstandard (nothing goes on half hours here). And with 13 people registered (and a few junior faculty and post-grads thinking of coming along too), it's just a few too many to fit comfortably in my office.