A couple of days ago, an entitled snowflake wrote a letter comparing his experience at 2 different universities.
Here's a link to the whole thing, but for people (like this flake) who don't like to read, let me sum up: at a good university, students are not made to read books; universities where students are forced to read are bad.
Hedlin's courageous decision to publicly reveal MRU's book-obsessed teaching culture brings worse shame to our university, but because I have no authority to speak officially on behalf of MRU, all I can offer him is my own sheepish apology: Robert, I am sorry you were forced to read a book.
Too bad it will go over Flakey McFlakerson's head, but here's a big high five from me.
A couple of days ago, an entitled snowflake wrote a letter comparing his experience at 2 different universities. Here's a link to the whole thing, but for people (like this flake) who don't like to read, let me sum up: at a good university, students are not made to read books; universities where students are forced to read are bad.
What I find depressing is the dead-serious reply to the second article from a student:
ReplyDeleteAgreed, well put Mr. England. However, I do think that in some instances there are unreasonable expectations at MRU. Here is a legitimate example that is not over-exagerated in the least;
I have one class where I am expected to do readings from 2 books, complete 12 assignments throughout the semester, and do minimum 4 hours per week worth of client work outside of school time. This is one class.
On top of this like many other students I have four other classes that I need to complete to get my BA, homework, work, and life in general. My professor actually told us at the bringing of the semester that we should not be working. This is NOT a viable solution to our problem and is proof of a class that forces students to overextend themselves.
To sum up: Two books, twelve assignments in a semester, four hours of work a week outside of class, plus the assumption that college should be your #1 priority=overextending oneself.
What a whiny little bitch. AND he's a BA. Jeez you get those just by having a pulse.
DeleteActually, a decent BA requires a little bit more than a pulse. I find it incredible that anyone should want to do a BA course without realising that it will, by its very nature, entail a LOT of reading.
DeleteThe second whiner seems to think being a student should be a 9-5 job and, while I can sympathise with the plight of those without wealthy families who are forced to pay their way through higher education, it is nevertheless essential to organise work around studies and learn to live without such frivolous items as cutting-edge gadgets, new clothes and (in my case) a properly balanced diet.
That last sentence was sarcasm, by the way. Work and studies are very hard to reconcile, especially when you need to sleep and maintain family relationships.
I'd be pleased if my students did put in 40 hours a week towards their classes. It would be an improvement.
Delete[NB: AT, Please don't take this as an attack on you--that is not the way this is meant. This comment is response to your last sentence.]
DeleteAT, you're correct--the work/life balance is a struggle. FOR EVERYBODY. ALL THE TIME.
I have students who live at home, work 20 hours a week (or don't work at all), play video games, do the minimum to get by, and complain that I'm assigning too much work. This is not an assumption on my part--I watch them do it, because our campus has a video games club and the students are in the common area on the TV, playing the entire time they are not physically in a classroom. Several are the students of mine who are failing, or barely passing, BTW.
I also have students who work 40 hours a week at a 3rd shift factory job, come to class after work with the reading done and the homework finished. They are often single parents, too. Guess what their grades are? I'll give you the answer: As and Bs. Is it hard? You betcha. Do they complain? NOT A ONE.
The ones who complain are looking to excuse their lack of a work ethic. College is supposed to be hard work. It shouldn't be possible to skate by with a minimum of effort (like it is in most American high schools). But it is, increasingly so, as unis all over cave to pressure to "help students succeed." I'm all for helping them. It's why I maintain 8 office hours a week spread across 4 days. They're not coming to me for help.
They're playing video games, and blaming their profs and their workload for their low grades.
A semester is (depending on which one) 12-16 weeks long. So, a project a week, 4 hours of required outside class activity weekly, and readings out of 2 books- (How long are they? Are they required to read the book in their entirety or just appropriate sections?)- just doesn't seem like too much to ask, in my opinion.
DeleteI do understand the difficulty of balancing work/school/life- but that doesn't end after you graduate. I feel that my students have no concept of what the "real world" entails, and what they will have to juggle when they are done with classes.
OMFG.
ReplyDeleteAnd just FYI, the high school across the street from my campus (the largest HS in the state) is going to GoogleApps and Chromebooks for all of its 2,000+ students (some of whom end up on my transfer campus before going off to a 4-year). No textbooks.
How much resistance am I going to encounter over the next several years because I require my students to actually.read.books (2 in my comp and multiple in my lit sections)? I can hear the whinging now: "This is haaarrrrd. Why do I have to read?" (This whinging occurs now, but the chorus will be deafening in about another 2 years.) The most popular humanities class on my campus requires NO BOOKS, only short readings. Hint: it's not a lit course.
FML.
The one point that the whiner makes that bears repeating is that a good professor is a good lecturer. If all the prof does is reiterate the book, then that's bullshit.
ReplyDeleteWe all know profs like that too, don't we? The profs in a certain department at my university are well-known for simply taking the book out during class and reading from it. Like, for the entire class. One prof I know stopped the semester three weeks early because he'd finished reading to the students from the book.
So I agree with the whiner in that one sense, in that if all one needs to know can be found in the book, why go to college?
I get the exact opposite responses on my evaluations. The students are upset that I have deviated in any way from the textbook, and did not cover every piece of it in minute detail. I feel that my job is to hit the important pieces, and elaborate. They would probably rather I stand up there and read to them.
DeleteSadly, many of the publisher-packaged online classes seem to work very much on this principle: if a student receives the content (in writing or via video) and does some sort of "interactive" exercise to test comprehension (usually little more than a multiple-choice test), then measurable, verifiable learning has been accomplished. This *might* work for absorbing basic information (e.g. naming parts of an organism, though I'm sure that has complexities of which I am not aware); it is in no way comparable to the skills-focused classes (both writing and literature) that I and my colleagues teach, sometimes online, but never with the sort of pre-packaged "course materials" that publishers push, and many adminstrators concerned with online learning seem to accept as the standard (and the desideratum).
DeleteI had an in-class teaching assessment done last week by a fellow instructor. I was told that I was in error for using Hemingway as an example as nobody reads him anymore. The class had also laughed when I asked a question about the assigned reading which means I have to change what I am doing. It would appear that the original letter writer is the consumer I have make happy.
ReplyDelete