A FB friend of mine posted an update where he said that he finished an academic triathlon, which involved a 10k run, teaching a class, and then jamming. I had to disagree as the traditional academic triathlon involved one activity in each of three categories of prof-ing: teaching, research, service. So, the AT would be: teaching a class, then proofing an article, and then writing a recommendation.
For the academic pentathlon, we add grading and an endless meeting.
For the academic decathlon, we have the following ten activities:
- Teaching a class;
- Proofing an article;
- Writing a recommendation;
- Grading some papers;
- Attending an apparently endless meeting (it has to end, otherwise the rest of the competition is moot);
- Reviewing an article for a journal;
- Holding office hours;
- Responding to a media request (which could mean saying no);
- Revising a grant proposal;
- Attending a university event (such as a model UN, a presentation, a ceremony, etc.)
Or are there other academic sports that would better test the complete academic athlete? I did omit, um, reading. Ooops. The idea here is that any prof can and usually does do a number of these things in a given week. Most of us do not run or play the guitar, as much as we would like to do so (well, guitar anyway).
Not a bad way to try to explain our unexplainable job to friends and family who just don't get what we do.
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