Confessions of an Adjunct English Instructor

Yesterday was the final day of my semester. Another one down. Here at LDS Business College, we don't have spring break, so we finish before practically everyone else. It's a long haul between President's Day and now with no breaks, but I think my students would agree that finishing this early makes that all worth it. I woke up early yesterday morning and started baking cupcakes. I know, right? Me... baking? But yeah, I did. I have around 75 students, so I needed a lot. They have worked hard, many of them very hard. My class is not easy because writing is not easy. I tell them this on the first day; most don't believe me. By now, they do. Those who are still standing have put forth tremendous effort in the past 14 weeks. The deserve a cupcake.

As this semester ends, I find myself reflecting. If I'm counting correctly, this semester completes my 20th year teaching as a part-time adjunct instructor at the college level.There are some wonderful advantages to being an adjunct:

1. I get to be home raising my children while still, on the side, do something I also love. Some semesters I teach only one class, sometimes two. Last fall I had four (way too many essays...ouch!), and this semester I had three. I've taken entire semesters off, here and there, when I've had a new baby or another commitment that made working impractical. This flexibility is not possible in most jobs.

2.  As an adjunct, I'm not expected to attend boring meetings or serve on meaningless (or even meaningful) committees. The full time folks get to do all that; I simply arrive, teach my classes, and leave.Yep!

3.  Because I'm not burdened down with administrative duties (see #2 above), I can devote more time to teaching, to my students, to helping them develop their writing skills.

4.  I earn a bit of money, not a lot, but a bit, so I can support my two favorite hobbies: shopping and eating in restaurants.

Of course there are also some downsides:

1.  Job security. Yeah, there's none. Adjunct faculty are hired semester by semester; we are always considered temporary employees. The number of classes (if any) that we are offered each semester depends entirely on enrollment. Enrollment varies. It especially varies at colleges connected with the Church, which just lowered the age requirements for missionaries. Ha! I'm teaching just one 3-credit class this summer, which is totally fine with me. Good thing Gerald supports the family. In a couple years, when all these hundreds of brand new missionaries come home, they will need to get educated, and our enrollment will likely sky-rocket. Meanwhile, not so much.

2.  Money. Adjunct faculty members are paid only for the hours they teach, not for preparation or grading. For us writing teachers, this is bad news. Way bad. In writing classes, students need to write. There's just no other way. I've watched my friend and colleague who teaches nutrition running her tests and assignments though a scan tron machine. It takes her literally less than a minute to grade assignments from an entire class. In my world, if I can get through one essay in 20 minutes, I'm doing great. More often they take 30 - 45 minutes each.

Still, adjunct teaching has been a great opportunity for me. Once Luke was born, I really only wanted to be a stay-at-home mom. I'm not very career minded. That said, I do love to teach, especially college students. I love helping them develop their writing. I love showing them it's possible to do things they never thought they could. Admittedly, I do better with the good students, the ones who care, the ones who work, the ones who take responsibility. They are the ones who see the incredible growth.

As we celebrated the completion of a successful semester yesterday, one of those excellent students come up to me to say goodbye. In the middle of cupcake eating and conversation, he relayed the following story:

"Just today, everyone was talking about registering for next semester's classes and what to take. When the subject of English 101 came up, people started discussing what teacher to take it from. Someone asked me who I had for 101, and I said that I have you. Then someone else said, 'I've heard she's really hard.' I spoke up right away and told everyone the truth: 'If you want to take the easy way out and just slide by, writing the same way you've always written, just getting through, you might want to take someone else. But if you want to really learn something, if you want to see change, if you want your writing to be better when you leave than when you came in, then I recommend you take Sister Webster."'

And that's exactly why I keep doing this.