I like your post and explaining about your major, especially where you explained humanity. I hope engineering disciplines could be more involved with humanities.
Thank you for your post.

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Nice post Susan. I went through the same as you during my undergraduate career. Even though my classes size were about 50 students, i was never able of making many friends because my career goals were completely different from them. Besides that, all my classes assignments were sorted into two exams (80%) and one project or homework (20%). In this sense, i did not have many chances to work on groups: “And yet we isolate students instead of connecting them”

Hey Maha! Thanks for sharing. It is nice to see that this class has had a good impact on how you see teaching. I guess this course is a small step we are taking to make a difference as college professors. For me too, this class has helped to understand and improve my teaching style. I will also keep continuously looking for strategies and ways to be a better professor.

I totally agree with your point about engineering classes and also teaching schedule, which is far away from social skills and improving emotional intelligence as well as logical intelligence. It is memorable to linking your background and personal experience to express your point and I hope more people follow your point of view especially in higher education.

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Hi everyone – thank you for all of the positive feedback and encouragement; it means a lot to me and I’ve really enjoyed hearing from all of you during our class discussions. We ARE the ones that will change academia for the better.

Aislinn – One of the roadblocks that I still struggle with is the significant pay cut I took for this job (50%). I had a great savings account thanks to a former employer that went public (and my subsequent stock option cash-out), that I was using to supplement my salary but it’s almost gone. I’m not sure what I’ll do then. Everyone keeps telling me that “it will all work out”. I suppose I’m hoping that it will and I’m waiting until it doesn’t to find a plan B.

Long live the New Engineering! Optimistic to hear, well, read, you bring more humility and humanity to the discipline!

Stephanie,

Right on! Humanities are irreplaceable! With your permission, I’d like to hold on to this blog post for future reference. If any of my students ask “what good are these majors for the job market, the ‘real world’, etc.”, I’d love to show them both Edelstein’s excerpt and your reflection on it.

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Thank you for your post! I think you bring up a great point that students feel much more engaged when they are engaged with, and when the professor is presented approachably. Making connections with students, as you pointed out, can be done in any number of ways but if done really increases the quality of education for all involved. I think one of my biggest take a ways from this class, my time as a student, and my time TAing is that there isn’t a signal best way to connect, but the most effective are also the most authentic/genuine. I believe this is good – we aren’t all funny, or charismatic – but those things don’t always need to be in play to connect with students… it can be as simple as just caring, or taking an interest and being ourselves.

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Pallavi,

I’m so sorry that you’ve had to go through this. You’re completely right, these students are so entrenched in their own privilege that it’s going to be difficult to break down the platforms that they’ve built their whole lives on, much less get them to accept that they’re unjust. I can’t hold your decisions against you, but for what it’s worth, I believe you’re a fantastic teacher and that the students and the institutions still need to have their prejudices checked and resisted.

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Oh, the balance!! There’s that part of business that requires so much efficiency, efficiency, efficiency! The smallest ripple makes waves, and if the ups don’t like it, you’re cut out of the system But there’s the need for flexibility, because we’re human. I don’t know what the answer is, except, as you hinted, by creating micro-cracks. That’s a long-term goal, but it could work. Maybe adding more emphasis on the human in us all. Bosses don’t want to hear that your car needs repairs – not their problem… though it is. Can’t show up to work? Replaced with another. I hope that we’ll all be more empathetic as we gain ‘the upper hand’ in our lives. Thank you for the post