Yale Daily News

Are section assholes then the Yale version of the schoolyard bully? They assert their power because they inwardly fear they don't have any?

That's interesting, but, unfortunately, not true in all cases. Some of them really are just assholes.

AMEN

Isn't this just a long way to say that undergrads are immature?

Well, TA, maybe you should take some responsibility for the state of your section. A lot depends on the ability of the professor or TA to put students at ease, the solution to a lot of the hindrances Tyler points out. For you to dismiss the by-products of the pressure-cooker environment of Yale as "undergrad immaturity" only reveals your own immaturity.

From the perspective of a section leader, I must say we love the section asshole. We get paid either way, but staring into a sea of unresponsive faces is not what most consider a good time. I don't care if you read nothing (helps if you do, but not required), but we spend lots of time trying to make it engaging and with little feedback, of which silence is feedback although negative, we lose interest as well. Please talk, we are the ones who can help your grade, not your peers or the section asshole.

#3--

This attitude of yours is exactly why I really dislike dealing with TAs. The best sections I have had here were with TAs who hadn't somehow forgotten that Yale undergrads are serious, capable and intelligent and who had managed to avoid succumbing to the need to lord some kind of superior maturity or intelligence over us. It saddens and frustrates me that those TAs are so few. Please don't write us off as immature just because you are a step closer to the real world than we are. If you really want to be an effective teacher, don't dismiss us, and instead work to cultivate a classroom setting in which the phenomena presented in this article are not a concern--you do have some control over that, you know. And by that, I mean don't encourage the "section assholes", who are some of the least mature of them all, (it's okay to come out and say, "I think it's time to let someone else talk") and don't enable (ie, do call on) the ones who psych themselves out of making their contributions--which is similarly immature, though not as disruptive. You will see a great deal of maturity if you put us in an environment in which maturity is encouraged. Just because you are a few years and one degree ahead of us doesn't mean we are less capable of mature, serious thought than you.

These aggressive responses are odd. I personally don't have any overarching opinion about the collective section psyche of Yale undergrads. The phenomenon of the failed section, in my experience, has a lot to do with students arriving unprepared. Students don't do the readings (or whatever) and so come to section with no honest intention of making a contribution. Of course some TAs are better than others, some courses are structured more effectively, etc., but the section is a time when a group of the most intelligent and motivated people in the world (*and you really are*) should get together and discuss a chosen topic: be animated, be angry, be curious, be brash, be unconvinced, be patient, be impatient, be anything other than just sitting there. When this happens the TA becomes just one of a dozen people engaged in an informed conversation and even his stunning incompetence or dour attitude cannot stop the learning. So, the success of a section is a function of the collective effort of its participants. Now, Mr. Ibbotson-Sindelar does make a shrewd analysis here, but I do think he's essentially saying that sections fail because their participants are sophomoric in their attitudes toward these sections. Or he’s saying that Yalies are embroiled in a shared psychological breakdown? Anyway, he’s not trying to be proscriptive, but I will be: put in the work, show up motivated, be resilient when others in the group annoy, disappoint or bore you, and I promise SECTION WILL BE FUN.

Dear TAs,

Section is garbage. We all have much better things to do with our time.

The beauty of Yale is that it really becomes a self-study college. Students do their own thing mostly.

Want to be a superstar and take every insane class? Do it.

Want to do an independent study on some random topic? Fine by Yale.

Want to take all gut classes and boost your GPA for grad school? Yep, cool.

Want to skip along taking a random mix of hard and gut classes, get a solid GPA, but throw yourself into a myriad of outstanding sports, clubs, etc? Perfect.

But section has no place here.

The standard dining hall conversation far surpasses any section, EVER.

End Section, for the good of Yale

Why all the hostility against section?

The irony is that Yale is meant to foster a love of education and dialogue, and all section does is unite students who are taking the same class to further discuss topics.

Ignore the section asshole. Don't like the asshole? Set a good example by participating as a contrast.

Don't diss the TAs. They love what they study and many of them are eager to discuss the topic further with students, and I'm sure they appreciate polite students more than an asshole in an otherwise silent classroom.

If students actually prepared, they'd learn a lot from section. There are good sections like good classes and bad teachers like good teachers. Put the two together.

Most TAs are clowns. It is a waste of my tuition dollars to have to listen to some sociology grad student stay one step ahead of me.

If you're so much smarter than the TAs, please do tell your professor to sign you up to lead next year's section.

I don't find section all that useful because even if everyone does the reading, we're still very uninformed about whatever topic it is we're supposed to be discussing. Perhaps this is less true of literature sections, but in a history section debating the merits of two contrasting arguments is rather hard given that we don't know anything about the period -- and if we did, why would we be taking the class?

That's not to say section can't be good -- I've had very good sections where it was used to bring in additional material not covered in lecture, or to flesh out a small related point, and so forth. But I don't see section as a place for well-informed debate and discussion.