Conveying a sense that “we’re all in this together” and that learning was not a zero sum game also helped me develop productive relationships with students.
—Arthur Bahr
I developed good rapport with students because I treated them like colleagues. When I was a junior faculty member, I had wonderful senior colleagues who treated me as a peer, but also as somebody who should be mentored, helped, and guided. My relationship with students was not entirely parallel to my relationship with senior faculty because of the wider professional gap, but it was comparable—my students were incredibly talented and smart people from whom I learned as well. Conveying a sense that “we’re all in this together” and that learning was not a zero sum game also helped me develop productive relationships with students. Many MIT students feel that the success of another student is at their expense, especially in fields like science and engineering—even though MIT does not grade on a curve. I made it very clear that another student’s success did not negatively effect their grade in my class, as this would have been a deeply pernicious way to approach learning. Finally, I really love teaching, and I think if you love something, that comes through.