Today was quite a day. I am going to tell you about two of the three events of my day. The third deserves it's own post at a later date.
Manly Maurice: Today the temperature finally reached the double digits which means I got my first glimpse of non-facial skin today. The sweatshirts and coats stayed at home. The short sleeved T-shirts once again have come to the front of the closet. Maurice showed up to my office hours to talk about a homework assignment. He sits in the front of class with a few of his frat brothers. They are a very confused bunch and spend most of the class trying to follow the arithmetic on the board (granted this is in a sophomore level calculus based course). Maurice walked in to my office in what looked like the world's smallest men's T-shirt. I say, "looked like" because Maurice is apparently a body builder. His arms are the size of my thighs. His shirt was so tight that one could not help but to notice the pure muscle man boobs he's got. When he left my office as confused as when he came in, I couldn't help but to wonder if he spent as much time studying as he did working out would he be as confused?
Vincent the Vampire: Vincent sucks my time away. He's a very thirsty man. Vincent the Vampire came to my office hours today. This is not unusual behavior for him. He generally leaves with some HW answers but I have no evidence that he actually learned anything. It was very odd to see him in my office today as we don't have any HW due for a week and he doesn't start it until the day before it is due. When he sat down at the other side of my desk, he proceeded to tell me that he didn't bring a pencil to class last time and needs me to go over what we did that day! I do realize that this is the 2010s and we live in a digital era but writing utensils are still very much in vogue and cheap to boot. I've seen many students with this problem before. But these other students have always worked out something with a classmate. Generally an agreement that ends in using a borrowed pen for the duration of the class period. Perhaps I would care less if Vincent had a less essential career aspiration. Maybe if he just wanted to be a teacher or lawyer or doctor. But no. Vincent is in the Air Force ROTC at my uni. Yes. Vincent is going to be charged with protecting the lives of poor enlisted men. What makes me sicker is that my favorite advisee is also in ROTC. Perfect Patricia is the most trustworthy, responsible 20 year old I have ever met. I would trust her with my soon to be conceived child. The mere thought of Patricia having to depend on Vincent for so much as breakfast makes me physically ill. Can I fail him just to save our military some good men and women?
by all means, tell Vincent that his performance, behavior, and general inability to think and act like an adult are worrisome for a future officer. tell him that, from your perspective as a civilian, he doesn't inspire confidence. Military professionalism can, I think, be learned. But cadets and midshipmen need to be called on it when they're not up to standard.
ReplyDeleteAt the military academy (where I currently teach - I'm a civilian, FWIW), we are all in this grand project together (or so we're told), so systems are linked, and I can pick up the phone and call the officer overseeing a cadet's military development if there's an issue, or it's pretty standard to correct a cadet about an obvious deficiency. In a ROTC environment, where students are interacting with a bigger variety of professors and members of the university community, I think it's perhaps even more important for civilian instructors to say something when a ROTC cadet is out of line.
Can I fail him just to save our military some good men and women?
ReplyDeleteBy all means, do so. (My service was in Intelligence, where the enlisted ranks tend to be better-educated than the officers. And smarter.)
ok, what is with the hit and run post that was in front of this one, then disappeared?
ReplyDeleteI feel the need to defend the muscular. I was a very fit student, a "gym bunny" who also got spectacular grades. Some of my best students have been extremely fit (and some of them have been schlubs too). A prominent Foucault scholar is a member of my gym, as are many proffies. Sure, many fit people are morons. So are many of the unfit. Being into fitness can give people a kind of discipline which they can then use in their studies. Being fit is not an indicator of whether one has what it takes to do well intellectually.
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