In the Aug. 25 issue of The Daily Collegian, columnist Daryl Lang had some interesting and insightful opinions to offer about teaching methods at Penn State . While I agree with the conclusion of the column — that teachers, far more than classroom equipment or class size, are the definitive element of any educational experience — I disagree with his comments about graduate students who teach.

Mr. Lang suggests that efforts to improve teaching are pointless if classes are taught by "graduate students who would rather not teach, but have to so they can afford tuition," and he points to Speech Communication 100 as an example. As one of the graduate students teaching Speech Communications 100, I take exception to his generalization.

To start with, Speech Communications 100 is beset with two problems entirely outside of teaching — it is a course in public speaking, which is often cited as the No. 1 fear in the United States, and it is required of almost every student. We take teaching Speech Communications 100 seriously.

We also work hard to improve the class. The graduate students consistently lobbied for the end of the much-maligned mass lecture and lab format, resulting this fall in many smaller stand-alone sections. The graduate students also lobbied for review of the text used in Speech Communications 100 and are working toward adoption of a different and more engaging textbook.

As for not wanting to teach but having to, I could have opted out of teaching 100 this semester, but like Professor Nelsen, chose not to. I am not the only graduate student in speech communication who has chosen to teach Speech Communications 100 when other alternatives were available, and like my colleagues, I chose to teach this class because I love it. I believe this class is an important class for Penn State students. As a teacher, I want students to have the best possible educational experience — and having someone teach who loves the class is a critical element of that experience.

I do agree that the issue of quality teaching is an important one. Academic institutions are placing more and more of undergraduate education in the hands of graduate students and adjunct faculty, a situation troubling to anyone in academia. But the offhanded dismissal of graduate students, and specifically those associated with this class, is inaccurate and unfair.