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Interview with Jim Biederman, ARCC Psychology Professor

Trevor Walstrom

4-7-11

            In order to teach you must have a passion for your work and the patience to help others learn what you already know. For Jim Biederman, that’s no problem at all. “I have a very methodical mind and I learn new things by figuring out how to explain them.  Teaching was a natural next step for me,” said Biederman.

           

            Biederman is a professor at Anoka-Ramsey Community College where he has been teaching Psychology since 1993. “I didn’t go to college expecting to major in psychology, but it turned out that psychology was my greatest interest,” Biederman said. “I think I enjoyed psychology so much because I was already interested in the complexity of human behavior, trying to figure out why people do what they do,” he added.

            When asked about how he came to work for ARCC Biederman replied “I applied to a few teaching positions when I started looking for full-time work and was lucky enough to be chosen by ARCC.  I had never set foot in Minnesota. It turns out that I was incredibly fortunate because over 100 people applied for my position.”

            Biederman loves teaching and is very passionate about his work. “I like the act of teaching, explaining things I really like and know well to students. I have a tremendous amount of control over how I run my classes, which makes my work less stressful and more rewarding than a lot of people I know,” he explained. But, while he is happy with what he is doing, things are far from perfect.

            The publicly notarized passing of the budget repair bill in Wisconsin is not the only such case of state budget cuts in the upper Midwest. The bill, which aims to “balance the budget and reform government,” according to Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, has essentially stripped many state employees of their collective bargaining rights. Lawmakers have begun to try and pass similar bills in Minnesota. “The conflict in Wisconsin got the most attention, but the Minnesota legislature has been proposing some of the same things here,” said Biederman. “When I started teaching, the State of Minnesota paid about 67-percent of the cost for a student to attend college. That percentage has slipped to about 33-percent now, which means tuition has skyrocketed and students are forced to take on more debt.  I really think the current legislature would be happy to cut that state support to zero percent and make college education a privilege for the wealthy,” he added.

            As a teacher Biederman can understand the importance of education in today’s world. “I’m afraid the easy economic times are over and it’s going to take a lot of work for a young person to be successful financially in the future,” he said. He sees first-hand how students act and behave while in school so when a student’s performance drops he notices. He has noticed many students who pay for classes and do not take them seriously. “I have never understood why a student would fork over tuition money and then skip classes, skip assignments, skip exams, and fail,” said Biederman. With the stressed importance of higher-education in America today he believes this to be a major cause for concern.

            Biederman has two psychology degrees, a Bachelor of Science degree from Southern Illinois University and a Master of Arts degree from Northern Illinois University. He plans to teach psychology until he is able to retire.