I am a bad academic in more ways than I can count. By “bad academic” I don’t mean “unsuccessful academic” – although these days I don’t feel like a very successful academic. Rather, I mean that I often don’t fulfill the preconceived notion of what academics should do or be. Initially, I thought I’d list some examples, but the list got long and unwieldy, so I’m just going to say: See Previous Blog Posts. That’ll tell you everything you need to know.

The latest evidence of the fact that I’m a bad academic emerged last week, when I was at a conference. (The conference, by the way, was awesome and my presentation went really well and I got lots of lovely compliments about it – further evidence that I am, sometimes, a successful academic.) At the conference I was asked a particular question by numerous people, ranging from close friends to recent acquaintances – a question that academics get asked all the time but which I’ve decided is one of the worst questions ever:

So, what are you teaching this semester?

After some reflection, I’ve figured out why I hate being asked this and why I never ask it of others. The question sucks in large part because of the answer it demands. There’s really only one way to answer it: to list your classes. “I’m teaching intro class A, survey B, special topics C, and grad seminar D.” Blah.

Of course, once you get through this tedious recital, there can be further questions that elicit far more interesting answers, but, really, can’t we just cut to the chase and ask what we really want to know?

I am not interested in knowing the list of classes you are teaching – sorry. What I want to know is whether you’ve had any particularly interesting or challenging experiences in your classes, whether you’ve developed any effective or innovative teaching techniques, whether you’ve read anything new and exciting, whether you’re using your research in your classes, or whether you’ve got a good group of students or a bunch of losers.

May I propose that we dispense with that boring ol’ question “What are you teaching this semester?” and try a couple of new conversation starters:

How are your classes going this semester?

Have you faced any teaching challenges this semester?

Are you teaching anything new this semester?

How are your students this semester?

I’m going to try to use some of these myself – but I’m also going to try to answer the implied direction behind the “what are you teaching?” chestnut: tell me something interesting about your teaching life.