I'm getting weaker ... Weaker ...
The will to go on fading ...
After several years of enduring the joy of undergraduate snowflakery, I was "promoted" to graduate level instruction.
Finally!
No more stupid questions which could have been answered in the syllabus.
No longer will I be required to remind students that Not Every Word they Feel is Important is Capitalized. Or that word's that are plural are not the same as those which are possessive.
At last! They will understand and appreciate that their instructor is aching for an actual intelligent conversation. That -- gasp! -- actual peer reviewed sources will have been explored and no longer will I have to take time to explain that Fox News, About.com and Wikipedia are not considered academic sources.
Oh how stupid I was.
Enter the ... GRAD FLAKES!
With few exceptions, they are just as clueless, vacuous, simplistic ... infuriating.
If I have to read one more discussion question answer which is little more than a summation of the text with a definition tossed in from Wikipedia and an opinion from a talking head ... I'm not heading to Pike's Peak ... but the other definition on the sign post.
Not on this post per se, but is anyone else wary of the new option to 'Like' things on CM via Facebook? Or am I the only one worried about it contributing more to the potential loss of anonymity? Just a thought.
ReplyDeleteJust remember, the undergrad snowflake of last year is the gradflake of today, and even better, preselected for inferior social skills, especially in the sciences. Great!
ReplyDeleteWhile I see some overlap, I must report that I see a big difference between grad students and undergrads. The writing is _generally_ much better, the research skills, the whole willingness to actually engage material that is not on answers.com. I see a difference between the 100 level and the 400 level and again in the jump to grad school. I would be horribly depressed if I didn't.
ReplyDeleteMy experience is from a university with open enrollments, however, so some of the people in the 100-level classes are people who only got out of high school by inertia and who are "getting this class out of the way" - meaning they are not in the least bit interested. By the time the 400 classes roll around, the absolute deadwood has drifted away, everyone has done some research and writing before and most of the people in class have some subject interest.
Even worse: grad students are the idiots who have been convinced that grad school is a good idea.
ReplyDeleteBart: Look at me, I'm a grad student. I'm 30 years old and I made $600 last year.
Marge: Bart, don't make fun of grad students. They've just made a terrible life choice.
I think J Harker is on to something. We should all come out to each other. Do ask; do tell. I want those 5 original posters from Miami of Ohio to out themselves for the good of the fair play and above-boardedness of this page.
ReplyDeleteI use Facebook and have been paralyzed by fear that I would inadvertently like something here that would then show up on my Facebook page for colleagues to see. (I'm a naughty CM user who is not OUT of the closet.)
ReplyDeleteDoes ANYONE use it?
Yeah, this. I almost think I'd rather go back to undergrads, because at least they're young enough to still be somewhat afraid of authority (as it were). The worst student I had this semester was a woman in her late 40s who was an absolutely contemptuous bitch. I got a lot more attitude and laziness from my grad students, although the best of my students were truly great.
ReplyDeleteThat said, if I had a dollar for every time one of my grad students asked me a dumb question like, "Where's your office?" or "How much does this test count for?" I'd never need to adjunct again. RTFS!
Is it lame to say I love gradflakes, and realize that at any moment, and quite to their benefit, they might disappear and I might go back to undergrads-only teaching? I dunno, I still consider it a privilege to have them.
ReplyDeleteOh how I long for UG only teaching. For every cohort of grads there is always one shit-stirrer who is fueled by his/her need to be top dog. They gossip, trash professors, tell students not to take classes with [fill in the blank] and if they are good, they cause faculty to fight with each other...had this experience today. In the end none of it worked, but I am still livid. So fuck grad students.
ReplyDelete