I've battled anger
, depression, you name it.
, depression, you name it.But here it is.
"Don't care more about their education than the snowflakes do."
As long as you do that, everything will be fine. (Well, except for your colleagues. That's a different rule.)
Discuss.
Discuss.
Amen, brother.
ReplyDeleteOTOH, it's fine to care more about your *subject* than they do. Let your love of the material show through. Wear it proudly on your sleeve in the certainty that a few will share it, and a few others will wonder what it's all about - is there really something about basketweaving that I'm missing? Something that this otherwise normal human seems to see and to care a great deal about?
The one's that never see and never wonder - can't be helped. Wish them well and move on.
Agreed OTB ...
ReplyDeleteHowever a corollary to Terry's original statement might be "Or let them steal the passion for your discipline from you."
Today's consumerist mindset coupled with a burgeoning anti-intellectualism in public discourse (e.g., #notintendedasafactualstatement) often leads to a classroom climate where caring about the integrity of one's discipline is dismissed as quaint or challenged as parochial.
After all, the flakes know what they want (a credential) and you are just an obstacle to its attainment.
Great advice, and harder to follow than one might think!
ReplyDeleteTerry, that sentiment is a key to my (relatively) stable mental well-being. Moreover, I think that phrase is applicable to more than just teaching. It seems appropriate any time you have authority over people but cannot control their actions.
ReplyDeleteIn general, don't worry about things you can't control.
I fully appreciate the sentiment in Terry's post. And I've tried to do that occasionally.
ReplyDeleteBut I also occasionally feel that I'm able to drag a flake kicking and screaming into his/her own fight.
I had a student this past year who I kept kicking back a project because it was just so damn dumb and poorly put together. I could have given an F countless times, and let it go, but I thought the kid was smarter than he was showing me, and I just kept telling him to redo it.
When it finally got down, it was okay, passing, good enough to get things started, and that student has been better in class and in test ever since.
It doesn't always work, of course...haha.
It strikes me as a very good rule, too, and I like Ockham's caveat. If you can't bring yourself to care a good deal about either the students or the subject, and at least a bit about both, it's time to get out (but the rule allows for that, I think; after all, most of the students care about some aspect of their classes, even if it's only a passing grade, and we do usually get to decide what the minimum necessary for that is, so not caring more =/= not caring at all).
ReplyDeleteI also like Fab's reminder that sometimes we *can* make a difference by pushing a student; what I like about Ben's rule is that it allows us to choose our battles in that regard, and to retreat when necessary to our sanity, health, personal life, and/or work that brings greater rewards (financial and/or psychological).
And I'll add another caveat: be careful to whom you admit that you follow this rule. Some people (mostly but not entirely outside the academy, at least in my experience) will be dreadfully disillusioned.
I'm grading papers at the moment and trying to bear this rule in mind.
ReplyDeleteThat maxim only works if you have tenure/job security, and you don't have admins and students blaming you for their failure, or you work somewhere that will not fire you for not having a proper passing rate.
ReplyDeleteIf you don't have those working conditions, you are often FORCED to care more than the snowflakes.
Myth, you aren't forced to care. You're forced to pretend you care - laddle on the extra credit, shed crocodile tears for the untimely demise of the student's grandmother's yorkie, whatever. You don't have to care, just pretend.
ReplyDeleteIf you can't tell the difference between the two, you definitely need to leave.
@Myth: Yes, that part of the equation is harder for those of us who are contingent, but I think it's a colleague, not a student, issue. What to do when your more senior colleagues (i.e. bosses) care more about numbers which may or may not mean anything (e.g. pass rates, student eval scores) than about actual student learning is the subject for another rule. If anyone can boil that one down to a pithy phrase, especially for those of us without tenure or the hope of tenure, I'd be grateful.
ReplyDelete@Contingent: Fake it til you get tenure?
ReplyDelete