tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2883226237165701608.post7163402689884315614..comments2023-10-15T04:23:50.187-04:00Comments on College Misery: Early Thirsty: teaching moment or patronising asshole?Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger30125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2883226237165701608.post-85954534692749521702013-01-10T10:57:28.134-05:002013-01-10T10:57:28.134-05:00Thank you all! It was a short essay question, not...Thank you all! It was a short essay question, not a maths question, which was along the lines of "define the terms A and B, and use them to explain phenomenon C"<br /><br />I like the whinging here, but the teaching discussion/support is just as important!Grumpy Academichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02896982515031823267noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2883226237165701608.post-77152087310030955922013-01-09T17:41:02.267-05:002013-01-09T17:41:02.267-05:00@Proffie: Hey, no problem! ;-)@Proffie: Hey, no problem! ;-)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2883226237165701608.post-64072048258733818342013-01-09T14:52:35.668-05:002013-01-09T14:52:35.668-05:00If the student in question has spent the last 4 ho...If the student in question has spent the last 4 hours trying to hammer out the solution to a problem, then I'd give them the friggin' answer. Otherwise make them sweat for it.InvertedSquarehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04704558162599421719noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2883226237165701608.post-72698476063792883322013-01-09T13:37:16.488-05:002013-01-09T13:37:16.488-05:00As above: you are the one with the backbone. He is...As above: you are the one with the backbone. He is a dickwad.<br /><br />I handle these things just as you did, and I also get accused of being "patronising" occasionally. That used to bother me until I checked with some former students and a couple of colleagues who had observed me in the classroom. <br /><br />Now I have a macro to deal with email FAQs like "you didn't cover Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02906546940408742913noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2883226237165701608.post-83846356287796916962013-01-09T13:23:16.821-05:002013-01-09T13:23:16.821-05:00Build a man a fire, and he'll be warm for a da...Build a man a fire, and he'll be warm for a day. Set a man on fire, and he'll be warm for the rest of his life.<br /><br />- (Sir!) Terry PratchettAnonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02906546940408742913noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2883226237165701608.post-66491224482505464862013-01-09T11:44:38.280-05:002013-01-09T11:44:38.280-05:00As everyone else has said: the way you are doing ...As everyone else has said: the way you are doing it is the correct way.Bellahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15686242633678466958noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2883226237165701608.post-90871333048615713552013-01-09T11:42:26.308-05:002013-01-09T11:42:26.308-05:00At the place I used to teach at, spoon-feeding the...At the place I used to teach at, spoon-feeding the students was not only encouraged, but often required in order to maintain the image that whoever gets accepted deserves to graduate.<br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2883226237165701608.post-129899134879887272013-01-09T11:36:19.130-05:002013-01-09T11:36:19.130-05:00Tempting though that might have been, I didn't...Tempting though that might have been, I didn't. The colleague in question was good buddies with the assistant department head, so I had to be satisfied with things like thumbing my nose at him.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2883226237165701608.post-21135598784092876142013-01-09T10:57:32.534-05:002013-01-09T10:57:32.534-05:00I agree with everyone above. You're teaching (...I agree with everyone above. You're teaching (well and respectfully, not patronisingly), your colleague is . . .well, I'm not sure what he's doing, but it's not teaching. Perhaps, as Cambridge suggests, he's broken under the stress, and is under the delusion that he's google. Or perhaps that what customer service looks like? Contingent Cassandrahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08161652083031423415noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2883226237165701608.post-59587235706672433922013-01-09T10:28:31.717-05:002013-01-09T10:28:31.717-05:00Your colleague is Google ???Your colleague is Google ???Cambridge0101https://www.blogger.com/profile/12153435765355501551noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2883226237165701608.post-58435294501826315022013-01-09T09:56:40.843-05:002013-01-09T09:56:40.843-05:00As above. You are right. He is wrong.As above. You are right. He is wrong.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2883226237165701608.post-39685166426865457862013-01-09T09:22:23.064-05:002013-01-09T09:22:23.064-05:00At the start of the term I let them know all the w...At the start of the term I let them know all the ways to find the answer as that is a needed skill. By the end of term, I just give them the answer. If they don't have the skills by that point, they are never going to learn them and I'm too damn tired to care.Sarcastic Bastardhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01407507896787403097noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2883226237165701608.post-18219734950056069062013-01-09T08:36:31.230-05:002013-01-09T08:36:31.230-05:00If I think the student has a chance of perhaps bec...If I think the student has a chance of perhaps becoming a real human someday, I use the 'patronizing' approach.<br /><br />If their destiny is to flip burgers I give them the answer.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2883226237165701608.post-86378263832261866612013-01-09T08:32:20.876-05:002013-01-09T08:32:20.876-05:00Take care, Greta ...
While I don't disagree ...Take care, Greta ... <br /><br />While I don't disagree with your message (or Academic Monkey's), I fear what Grumpy Academic has experienced is just the latest evolutionary turn of student consumerism. <br /><br />At a recent faculty meeting for a graduate program, we were told to <br />"honor the students' experiences" which was edu-speak for "do not contradict their Aware and Scaredhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14700345349806280657noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2883226237165701608.post-50342653934010554312013-01-09T03:10:00.792-05:002013-01-09T03:10:00.792-05:00That is so very sad. That is so very sad. Academic Monkeyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07086078244493768565noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2883226237165701608.post-6079499224060743002013-01-09T00:46:28.031-05:002013-01-09T00:46:28.031-05:00So, did you staple his dick to the floor?So, did you staple his dick to the floor?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2883226237165701608.post-47746081020289329782013-01-09T00:18:04.102-05:002013-01-09T00:18:04.102-05:00I had a colleague who was like that. His courses ...I had a colleague who was like that. His courses were, compared with mine, a piece of cake and he was enormously popular. That popularity was reflected in his evaluations and he was held up as an example of excellence in teaching.<br /><br />He, too, was an educational menace because he, too, took the easy way out. What made it worse was that he had a B. Ed., so I guess he knew how to teach.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2883226237165701608.post-55401433264690802432013-01-09T00:12:50.191-05:002013-01-09T00:12:50.191-05:00While I was an instructor at a tech school, I was ...While I was an instructor at a tech school, I was told that "teaching" consisted of helping students graduate so that they could get jobs. I wasn't to bother with getting them to think or look up information themselves. I just had to show them the formula and how to use it.<br /><br />I spent many miserable years fighting that narrow-minded thinking. Then again, my job really Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2883226237165701608.post-61686722020069296832013-01-09T00:08:54.016-05:002013-01-09T00:08:54.016-05:00You are right, since you show the characteristics ...You are right, since you show the characteristics of a good teacher: you coach your students in how to get the right answers for themselves, by doing their own thinking and work. Your colleague is an educational menace, since he takes the cheap, easy, lazy way out. He should have his dick stapled to the floor, so Strelnikov won't have to chase after him.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2883226237165701608.post-60998271330119406072013-01-08T23:54:44.460-05:002013-01-08T23:54:44.460-05:00The thing that surprises me here is not that your ...The thing that surprises me here is not that your lazy-ass colleague is just giving them the answer (which is useless). It's that he is self-righteous about it and is trying to make you feel lousy about actually teaching the students something - how to review, how to go through their notes, how to figure stuff out for themselves. This isn't "patronising"; this is TEACHING. ItMerely Academichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00452389428113097744noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2883226237165701608.post-8334485990890586882013-01-08T23:38:54.744-05:002013-01-08T23:38:54.744-05:00He's upset that you're contradicting the s...He's upset that you're contradicting the students? Your colleague is a tea partying idiot--and a lazy one at that. He likely answers the questions directly because it's the easiest thing to do.<br /><br />You are doing absolutely the right thing. I do not answer questions for students when they can and should be answering them for themselves. <br /><br />And the last thing Great Lakes Gretahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08101613060478193833noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2883226237165701608.post-13813643180388204292013-01-08T23:16:31.467-05:002013-01-08T23:16:31.467-05:00Wait. Is that a new early thirsty graphic?????Wait. Is that a new early thirsty graphic?????Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2883226237165701608.post-68741914354334938232013-01-08T22:51:01.706-05:002013-01-08T22:51:01.706-05:00In a situation like this one, I'd do both. Fir...In a situation like this one, I'd do both. First explain how to do the problem (assuming math here), then point out that this was covered in topic X, and is very similar to example Y done in class and homework problem Z. This way you show them how to do it *and* let them know it is an entirely fair question. (I include on my tests the number of the HW problem or class example each question Peter Khttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00754472537710161295noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2883226237165701608.post-66562210872879358372013-01-08T22:43:00.648-05:002013-01-08T22:43:00.648-05:00Echoing the general sentiment: your colleague is a...Echoing the general sentiment: your colleague is a useless, enabling douchebag.Defunct Adjuncthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12954331373226016090noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2883226237165701608.post-59916917167873504702013-01-08T22:13:08.856-05:002013-01-08T22:13:08.856-05:00I hate the old "give a man to fish, teach a m...I hate the old "give a man to fish, teach a man to fish" saying, but.... that's what you're doing. Your colleague is giving a fish; you are showing your students how to get the fish for themselves in the future. <br /><br />Siigh.<br /><br />Sorry you work with dickwads.Academic Monkeyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07086078244493768565noreply@blogger.com