<p>At college, one of the best courses I took was taught by a grad student who was intelligent, funny, VERY well-versed in the material, a good lecture, and very accessible. My office mate is a grad student instructor, and I’ve literally seen her sit with a student for over an hour to recap course material. As an instructor/TA myself, I make myself available to students via email and appointment (my schedule is very flexible this semester, so that’s easier to do than office hours), and one of my students commented that I gave them far more feedback on their essays than they got an a normal course. I’m not a perfect instructor by any means (who is?), but I’m gotten pretty to very positive evals, and I take the negative feedback into consideration as well and try to improve in following semesters.</p>
<p>Also, TAships fund many/most PhD students–without that funding, a PhD would not be economically feasible for a vast majority of students.</p>