Outstanding Lecturer? Not Me!

I have given some real kick-ass lectures at times. One, in particular, is my intro lecture on the economics of search, shopping, courtship, one-nighters, love, and marriage. Another is my intro to the prisoners' dilemma, which formed the basis of this chapter in my intro text. But for the most part, I give okay or good lectures, not great ones.

So I was really pleased to receive e-mail on Monday from TVOntario, informing me that someone had nominated me to be included in their programme on the top lecturers in Ontario. [btw, thanks to the anonymous person who nominated me!]

I most likely won't follow up on the nomination for two reasons: First, I know that overall I'm a good lecturer, probably even a very good lecturer; but I'm not consistently great. Second, doing anything more requires the hassles and embarrassment of having a lecture taped and submitted to a council of judges. I don't want to go through all that -- for what?

An additional reason is that when I notified some administrators at my university of the nomination, their response was something to the effect of, "That's nice. Are you going to do it?" Nope, not with that kind of response.

Now, if their reaction had been, "That's terrific! What can we do to help?" I might have decided to follow through.

But the sad fact is that our university, like many others, pays lip service to the importance of teaching. They don't really give a $hit. And this stage of my career, this sort of thing has only costs, and no benefits for me.