perks

Perk #1 - no PhD means I don't have to go through the dehumanizing crunch of getting tenure. Graduate school is bad enough - don't even get me started on what profs have to do to get tenure. These are the folks who passsed the PhD hurdle, mind you.

More perks later. Meanwhile, a bit of great timing: I'm going out to dinner tonight. I met Martin when I was his TA. He being no fool, Martin would drop by office hours to discuss class, whch eventually devolved into discussing other safe topics (books, TV, that sort of thing.) A year later, he enrolled im a class but couldn't decide, based upon the description, if he wanted to take it. He showed up for the first class, saw me sitting in the TA row, and stayed.

You get the idea. Very flattering, to be sure, but also very reassuring - if my teaching inspired this kind of loyalty I must be doing something right.

At graduation, Martin e-mailed me to say that he'd always intended to take his favorite prof out for drinks and that was me. "Surely you'd rather have a PhD!" No, he wanted me. Now I'm sure that there was a certain glee in getting drunk someone who had marked up your papers, but it was a great evening. We've repeated it since and I hear from him occasionally, which gladdens my heart. He's back in Hoosier-land and we're going out tonight. Yes, we have a designated driver.

Oh, and his girlfriend is coming along, so don't get any purient ideas. (grin)

Gang of Four, eat your hearts out - how many of your old students (undergraduates, mind) make a point of staying in touch? I rest my case.