instructor

It's never been quite clear to me why tenure makes sense for instructor positions, either at the college or pre-college level. I say this as someone who was a tenured instructor at a community college for a number of years.

When one of my instructors at Berkeley had to take leave due to personal issues, Mihai stepped in as the instructor. The course became one of the most challenging, instructive, and yet enjoyable one during my time at Berkeley.

The uselessness of this notation is compounded by the fact that practically no instructor will be willing to give up a notation that has been in use their entire life, and also for centuries. Do I see this being successful?

And even if he was sloppy, it's hard to imagine somebody being so negligent that he didn't bother to check his airspeed when landing a 777 under the watchful eye of his instructor. And why didn't the instructor intervene?

You could be a martial arts instructor, stunt man, or any other profession that hires badasses of this caliber. Also, "being a welder" isn't something you just jump into without previous experience and/or equipment.

But I can tell you that my friends don't care if you're a hot-shot developer for Google or a yoga instructor or a public-policy consultant or an urban planner. People are people, they're complex, and they're a lot more than a laundry list of characteristics you might like to have.

While I sympathize with the instructor and think he should be incentivized to fight cheating, I'm not pleased with the use of services like TurnItIn. Basically, the student gives someone some faceless company a license to whatever they create for perpetuity. Are these companies ever compelled to delete material on request?

Still, though, I made a relatively simple decision many years ago, to take a vacation from the computer industry for a while and be a climbing instructor. Unfortunately, while being a climbing instructor was amazing and I'm still glad I did it, it didn't pay very much, and eventually I got into trouble with a bank.

So when, in my 3rd semester review with my technique instructor, he asked me why I came to the school, I was frustrated enough to tell him the truth." I couldn't get in to college." He very nearly spat his water in surprise. This broke the ice and we had one of the most encouraging, pleasant conversations I had while at that school. He told me I was good at this, and I told him that I enjoyed it. We both agreed that even though I wasn't as crazed as the rest of the students and staff, there was no good reason not to take my shot. So, I stayed at the school and started auditioning not long after. I landed my first off-broadway gig a couple months later, then a film, then I co-founded a theatre company that turned a profit on our first off-off-broadway show. While I am living a different life now, I am so thankful for that small moment of encouragement in the midst of all the angst I was exposed to every day. I genuinely believe that short meeting with my instructor inspired the early risks I took, and it certainly kept me going when I wanted to walk away.