Professor Chronicles: Teaching is Hard But Worth it!

As an educator, particularly as a relatively new Adjunct Professor, there are times when you wonder if you are making a difference. By the time the students arrive on Howard University’s campus, they have already experienced a great deal of adversity in their young lives – school shootings that are far too common, financial hardships, and a pandemic that, according to McKinsey & Company, widened preexisting opportunity and achievement gaps. As a professor, it’s difficult to balance “tough love” teaching techniques that will prepare them for the workforce with the empathy required to show grace in these challenging times.

Professor comes from the Latin prefix pro-, meaning forth or forward, and frateri, meaning acknowledge or confess. An Adjunct Professor or Adjunct Lecturer is a part-time faculty member hired on a contractual basis. Professors are usually experts in their field. I bring 40 years of media experience to my role as an educator at Howard. As a “working professor” with a full-time media job, I aim to ensure the students have the information they need to succeed and that they are ready to enter the workforce with a strong work ethic. That said, an educator’s role in helping shape young minds can be overwhelming and sometimes seem fruitless. The pay can be low, and the gains often seem few. But I am reminded of an email from a former student letting me know I am walking in your purpose.

As I sit here on a rainy Sunday working on my lesson plans, I needed this reminder that I can make a difference. I shall forge ahead. I really do love these Baby Bison. They are simply amazing.