I have been teaching Introduction to Humanities: 40,000 BCE to 1400 CE this semester at a community college in San Diego.
I was hoping to make this my retirement gig, but it’s tough on many levels.
First off, I was only given one class this semester. That works out to about $900/month gross income and that’s with the top pay grade since I have a doctorate in the humanities.
Second, I decided to use Open Educational Resources (OER). This spares my students from having to spend a fortune on books. But it also allowed me to create a course with a more global perspective as many of the approved text books for this course are too Eurocentric for my taste. However, it requires me to find appropriate materials for the course, which isn’t always easy.
Angkor Wat in Cambodia
Because I was hired to teach this course two weeks before the semester started, I’ve been playing catch up, trying to build out the curriculum as I go. Plus I’ve been developing course lectures, tests, and homework as I go. It has been a scramble. I enjoy it very much because not only do I get to expose my students to cultures around the globe (although we did miss Australia and Russia), as I think about each culture and era, I put together the most important points for me and then teach it to them.
This semester is coming to a close and I don’t know if I will have classes to teach in the Spring Semester or not. After all, I am the newest hire from the adjunct pool, so if a section needs to be cut, I’ll be cut.
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