I never had a professor who really seemed not to care.

Teachers in elementary and high school, definitely. Never in college or law school. There was definitely variation in their ability to make the material (1) clear and (2) interesting, but never a lack of commitment.

From the opposite perspective - I taught one course at a technical college. I know I didn't do a very good job of it - I appear to be the only one in my family who didn't get the teaching gene - but it wasn't for lack of trying. Still, for the $3.00 an hour it worked out to, I could've worked at McDonald's and gotten something to eat, too. Whatever amount of homework students do for each class, multiply that by about five for the professor.

And from a third perspective - my sister, the tenured professor, is lucky to have a stay-at-home husband, otherwise she'd never have been able to raise her daughter. Her work is every bit as demanding as mine ever was. Sure she complains about her undergrads sometimes - just as all the teachers here vent about their students, and just as I had some problem clients - but she loves what she does. Once every few years she has a semester when she doesn't have any classes, but that doesn't mean she isn't extremely busy with her research, only that she has a bit more flexibility with her time.

C'mon, we need a professor here to defend her profession with the same teeth and claws V. has for hers.