Least Stressful Jobs in 2013--University Professor

Least Stressful Jobs in 2013

University Professor

I am not sure if this topic really fits the theme of this blog, but I am going count it since this article has created some ranting from the culture of academia. When I read the article, repeated below, I felt a slight steam come over me:

"1. University Professor
Median Salary: $62,050
And the winner of Least Stressful Job of 2013 is … university professor!
(Cue the commencement music.)
Professor is a newcomer to the list this year, and it shot straight to the top.

"If you look at the criteria for stressful jobs, things like working under deadlines, physical demands of the job, environmental conditions hazards, is your life at risk, are you responsible for the life of someone else, they rank like 'zero' on pretty much all of them!" Lee said.
Plus, they're in total control. They teach as many classes as they want and what they want to teach. They tell the students what to do and reign over the classroom. They are the managers of their own stress level.

The most stressful thing about being a professor?
"Interacting with other professors!" Lee said.

(cited here: Least Stressful Jobs)"

The author of this piece, Cindy Perman, has conducted a strange analysis of this profession. Honestly, I don't think any writer can state the least/most stressful of professions unless they have experienced them all. The portrayal of the university professor, being a college composition instructor myself, struck me as a mixture of ignorance and minimal investigation. Perman needs to reevaluate what she means by 'University Professor'. An adjunct, graduate teaching assistant, visiting professor, etc. is not going to make a median salary of 62,000 dollars. They make a fraction of that amount. 

It's true a professor doesn't work under harsh environmental conditions,  but the not working under deadlines...what?? An instructor is surrounded by deadlines not only for their own published writing, which is demanded by most universities, but also having to objectively grade a vast amount of student papers. Also, what about the duration of work load? A professor never leaves work...it follows them everywhere they go. There is no weekend for a college instructor. When they leave a classroom they enter their office hours. Once home you spend late nights grading work, or doing lesson plans. And the idea that a professor is in total control is ridiculous. It takes a very seasoned professor to know how to navigate a room full of twenty or more different individuals. 

A college instructor is not a lord and master in any course. If Perman had any background in pedagogical training she would realize that "reigning over a classroom" is an extremely archaic idea. Teachers 'now' are constantly taking on different roles: leader, mentor, friend, negotiator...

I know in my first year teaching, being only four years older than most of my students, meant having to stand up in front of a group of people and prove that I deserved the privilege of teaching them. Moreover, no class is made up of happy campers. There is always the one who can't believe they 'have' to take your 'required' course, the one who is too shy to say anything but has so many good things to say, the one who keeps talking and drowns out those who have something important to say, those who question every grade...

A teacher, at any level, should never be put in the category of low stress. While we do not carry a student's life in our hands we do hold a part of their future. A good professor can make you see things you never thought of before, to challenge your own path in life...to help you find your true self. Attributes of low stress--never.