To the Editor:
In response to "Undergraduate TAs need to go" (Oct. 25): I agree that many undergraduate teaching assistants just don't cut the mustard, but the problem is not that they are undergraduates teaching the courses. In fact, it is preferable to have undergraduates who have just completed the class as TAs, because, as long as they are decent teachers, undergrads can be more effective than graduate TAs. I've even had teachers who were post-docs that were less effective than some undergrad TAs.
The fact is that in many of the sciences and in certain math classes, graduate students are not taken on to teach undergraduate students - they are here for research. The solution to this problem exists more in the selection of undergraduate TAs than the eradication of the entire group.
I myself was solicited to become a TA for a course for which I would consider myself unfit to serve as a TA. The only requirements to become a TA were that I had taken the course and that I write a small paragraph stating why I should be a TA. In solving the problem of terrible TAs, perhaps filtering out the ones who do not cut it is preferable to removing the entire body of undergraduate TAs.
Andrew Miklos '06Oct. 25
To the Editor:
In response to the column by Benjamin Bright-Fishbein '07 regarding undergraduate teaching assistants ("Undergraduate TAs need to go," Oct. 25): I have both worked as and dealt with undergraduate TAs in the computer science department and have had wonderful results. (I have also had some graduate TAs who were not very good.) I am in my second semester as an undergraduate TA and have found the experience valuable and rewarding.
Many courses in the CS department hire large staffs of undergraduate TAs to manage the large amount of administrative work, from grading homework to holding office hours. Hiring undergraduates allows a course to provide more personalized service to students because that course can afford to hire more TAs.
Many students, including myself, feel more comfortable approaching peers with simple questions than trekking to a professor's office hours only to be embarrassed for not understanding the material. Having questions answered by your peers can bolster a student's confidence and comfort with the material.
If students are not feeling challenged by a course and need more advanced instruction, then they should head to the professor's office hours to hear from someone more experienced. However, Bright-Fishbein is wrong to assume that just because someone is an undergraduate, he or she is not qualified to assist the professor in running the course.
Bill Pijewski '07Oct. 25
