Tuesday, April 10, 2012

The Growing Hate Storm

It's the post-Spring Break month of April. I feel that the third month of a term is when we really understand our students. We are no longer in the shiny stage of learning each other's names and giving everyone the benefit of the doubt. We have collected enough papers and exams and had enough meetings to know who is going to shoot for a realistic A and who probably won't show up until the last week of class and score a D (or thereabouts).

But I am disturbed in particular by this year's batch of kids. Disturbed because I am beginning to feel the pangs of hatred in my interaction with them.

The Very Easy Basic class, half of whom complain every time I give them even the slightest homework assignment, only to be argued down by the rest of the class who finds said homework helpful. Every time. They argue in factions. It's annoying as hell.

My small snowflake class. This is the one that's killing me. Every class we have is going to contain a few idiots. People who skip the syllabus, who wander in and out and then are surprised to learn there is an attendance policy, or that there have been 12 reading responses due. Every class has a few D students. It just works that way. But what happens when you are teaching a small group of 9 and ALL of them are flaking? Missing class left and right, getting 50 or 60% on their responses (if they get a grade at all!) And not caring at all that they are failing?? I've never before had a class lack even one eager beaver. None of them will carry their slacker student fellows. They show up without doing the reading. They lose points and don't care.

It isn't a hard class. I've taught it many times before. But this group of students: my god. The excuses! Oh, Dr Monkey, I'm a linear learner so I can't understand the instructions, even when you draw me pictures of what is expected. The 12 emails in one day from one woman. The constant explanation that Child wanted to see Thing and therefore they skipped class. STOP TELLING ME ABOUT YOUR STUPID KIDS.

And this one class is making me lose patience with the other classes. The mundane answers used to be expected, no problem. You know: the students who write one page less than the required length. Normally I knock off a few points, no big deal, keep moving. But now, the Hate Storm gathers and I dock them 10 points, 20 points. I hold them accountable for everything and secretly hope I can nail someone for plagiarism, just for the satisfaction.

It isn't fair, sure, but how can I resist this feeling? Just walk away from my teaching and grading? Crack open another beer? Why is it so much worse this year?

The Hate Storm must dissipate in order to enjoy the green of Summer.

16 comments:

  1. This is an epidemic. It's not just you, and unfortunately I have no advice for dealing with it, because I am starting to hate my students too.

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  2. "And not caring at all that they are failing??"

    Remind me again why you are caring if they don't.

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    1. Oh, I don't care if they fail. What is making me hate them is that there is not a single person in the class who shows up prepared, making that 50 minutes pure misery. I'm serious about this hatred: it wells up inside me. Do the goddamned work or drop the bloody course!!

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  3. I agree with you both about the epidemic nature. I wrote yesterday how I was frozen with depression about returning to grading.

    While I still have deep disdain for my Intro to Graduate Studies of the Discipline class, after embracing Stella's slacker disengagement policy, I finished some grading for my non-intro classes and was pleasantly surprised. Trudging ahead with super-simplified excellent, pretty good, and meh grading boilerplates, I found myself using a solid number of "excellents," a majority of "very goods," and only a handful of "mehs".

    Now, the Intro flakes leave me wanting to bring a snow thrower to class. But the other classes are allowing a glimmer of hope to shine.

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  4. Yes, definitely an epidemic: I know about half my colleagues are feeling the same way. Things seem to have changed so radically in such a short time. Ten years ago was about half as good as ten years before that, and five years ago things got even worse. Is there anything tangible that this can be connected to? Justin Bieber rose to prominence about five years ago. Could it be??? Ten years ago was American Idol....

    O.k., I'm scaring myself. At least I have lots of lorazepam to keep the hate and disgust in check.

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  5. I see a direct correlation between my new Dean focusing on student retention which meant I was forced to lower expectations of acceptable work which meant passing students not ready in the work force. The same Dean always sides with students in any grade dispute and talks down to me. My disdain of students is in direct correlation with my job dissatisfaction. Unfortunatley I am an adjunct, no hope of a full time job at this university, and can't afford to leave. My sense of desperate unhappiness is apparent.

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  6. There's something about this semester. Everybody who teaches lower division writing in my institution's feeling it, too. There must be something in the water.

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  7. Ditto on the "it's this semester and spreading" comments. Although it was pretty damned bad in the fall, too. Combined, it's the flakiest year ever.

    I've nearly 100% decided to quit the adjunct job after this term (I just need something else first...even if it's goddamned Home Despot as a part-timer).

    But then days like today happen, out of the blue, to challenge my lack of confidence: the class ran nearly perfectly, they followed the brief lecture, the PowerPoint kept them engaged (I *never* use PowerPoint, so maybe it was the shock), and when I cut them loose to do research, 3/4 of them actually stayed in the room...DOING RESEARCH! And most of those who stayed had individual questions to work on with me that were ACTUALLY RELEVANT to their projects!

    What the hell? Who are these pod people, and what have they done with my students? (...and can they please remain, in place of my students, until after finals week?)

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  8. While I sympathize with this and have experienced this myself at other institutions, we are on quarters. This means that we still have nine weeks until final exams. Yes... NINE MORE week.

    And I hate them already. But I know that summer's arrival will cure me of that hatred.

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  9. I too have NINE MORE WEEKS.

    However. I would like to swim against the tide here. My students have endured campus cop crackdowns, huge hikes to their tuition and the attendant burden of loans, and the administration's lies. The have finally woken up to smell the coffee of privatization, and they are mad as hell. Hence, they are, for the first time in the decade plus that I've taught at this particular institution, ON FIRE. They come to class, they discuss things eagerly, they make connections to their contemporary context, they ask good questions. It's as if they suddenly value their education, and understand that we are on the same side of hating something bigger than both of us.

    It is awesome.

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    1. I wish we had that (well, not for the same reasons, of course!). Maybe mine can borrow some of your students' fire to at least melt some of the flakiness.

      It also shows how they CAN, if they want to, not be flakes. If motivated enough, they don't HAVE TO be the lumps in a desk that they present to me every day.

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    2. Jeez, me too. Nine. More. Weeks.

      In all of my classes, there are about 25% totally engaged, 50% meh, and then the last bunch? Oh dear lord.

      Yesterday, one of my students had done nothing during the first hour of lab time. I was circulating, checking in with each student. I commented to him a couple of times that he needed to get started, and I'd be glad to help if he had questions. Instead of working, he got increasingly more disruptive. I finally told him that he either had to get to work, or he needed to leave. Why, I asked, had he not done anything?

      His reply: because he's left handed, and when I demonstrated their tasks for the day, I used my right hand and he couldn't figure out how to do it.

      Nine. More. Tea partying. Weeks.

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    3. Annie, you know that left-handed kid had a mom who chewed his food for him, right?

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  10. We don't even have an official spring break this year, for no discernible reason. So all of us, proffies and flakes alike, are wandering around more or less like zombies until finals kick in about a month from now. Apathy all around.

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  11. I have a snowflake this semester that totally refuses to participate in his own education. He won't do group work, he won't participate in my hamster basket weaving experiments/activities in class. Today, while I showed a perfectly fascinating hamster video he put his head down to "sleep" and pulled up his hoodie over his face to make it very clear that he was not participating. At least he was quiet- which is WAY BETTER than when he is participating with his snarky comments (I'm the only one who can make snarky comments, dammit!). Needless to say, there will be exam questions on this video. Sleep tight, snowflake!

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