The Tartan

Being a teaching assistant is good, and it’s something you should do. With such a simple, self-contained point to defend, I will default to writing this like a middle school English paper.

“Why is being a teaching assistant good?” One reason is that it makes you a better person. Some people might say this means that if you haven’t teaching-assisted (taught-assisted?) you are a worse person. But that’s not true. Being a TA doesn’t make you a good or bad person. Being a teaching assistant makes you more patient, better at articulating ideas, and more knowledgeable about your subject. These are all things that I think are very important for students to learn. 

“But what if I don’t have time to be a teaching assistant?” That’s okay. However, I think you should try to make time before you graduate, because you probably won’t get to teach after you graduate. It’s not a thing many people do. Maybe you will become a teacher, or a tutor, or a PhD candidate. If that happens, you’ll definitely get to teach. But if you don’t end up in that type of career, now is your only chance to learn the important skills you learn by being a TA.

“But what if I’m not any good at teaching?” That’s not true! You’ll definitely be able to do it well, even if you have to pick an easy class like 15-112. When I was a TA, I was really scared that I wouldn’t do a good job at it. But I worked really hard to make good lesson plans and make sure my students understood things. Sometimes, people will ask you questions you don’t know the answer to, and you feel really silly. But not knowing things is a part of life, and you can use that as an opportunity to better understand the material. It’s okay to tell students that you don’t know something, because then it makes them feel better about not knowing things. People don’t know things all the time, and communicating this to your peers and students is part of the communal learning process.

Another reason why you should be a TA is that you get to help out younger students. Even if you’re a first-year, you won’t be a first-year very soon, and next year, you’ll be older than a whole lot of other people. Helping younger students figure out how to do things in college is super important, and it’s some of the most rewarding kind of work you can do.

I’m sure you can think of a TA you’ve had that was super helpful. If you choose to be a TA, you will get to be that person to someone else. Maybe there is someone out there who might not understand something in one of their future classes; perhaps you are the person who will help them pass that class. 

In conclusion, there are a lot of good reasons to be a teaching assistant, which is why I think everybody at college should try to do it.