If I give even a single fuck about anything related to my course, I am officially caring more about their education than they do.In fact, we have entered the territory where even giving zero fucks is STILL caring more. Based on the steaming pile of assignments in front of me, their level of fuck-giving is now measured in integers.
Fuck.
My.
Life.
DiaMC
PS: Now what? No, seriously.
Obviously: drink.
ReplyDeleteI once had a class of 80 undergraduate education majors, all of whom were positively hostile to learning anything. I don't know how I survived it. What was most terrifying was that these people were training to become teachers, for crying out loud!
What's the thing with education majors? They have a really, really bad reputation. I don't have any in my classes, but I have met a lot while studying myself recently. They seem perfectly normal, within the usual norm of students in general.
DeleteMy school is run by an MBA with a doctorate in education and I don't like how my school is run. But I can't draw much of a conclusion with n=1.
BTW I agree with Frod. Drink. Start now. Really. Right now, not this evening or over the weekend.
"Normal," within the usual norm of students in general, leaves quite a bit of latitude these days, doesn't it? For starters, undergraduate ed majors have the lowest SAT/ACT scores of any students in my university. They also graduate to the lowest-paying jobs. Much worse is how they appear to believe enthusiastically and totally uncritically every word of the pseudo-scientific nonsense half baked by John Dewey that they're taught in the ed school.
DeleteA former neighbour of mine was a schoolteacher who eventually got her Ph. D. in education. I remember how she described a new teacher at her school and how that person behaved like an entitled snowflake. My neighbour wasn't impressed by what universities were turning out nowadays.
DeleteI have a class right now where more than half the students are failing all because they simply do not turn in their assignments. My Dean asked me what I plan to do about it, as if it is somehow a failing to teach on my part that they do not turn things in.
ReplyDeleteI have a class right now where more than half the students are failing all because they simply do not turn in their assignments. My Dean asked me what I plan to do about it, as if it is somehow a failing to teach on my part that they do not turn things in.
ReplyDeleteOne absolutely has to be able to fail such students, without questions or repercussions. Otherwise, the whole enterprise falls apart. It may be that the students need psychological support, or study/time management skills training, or *something* (decent financial aid, perhaps?) to get their acts together, but, unless a professor is genuinely bullying, belittling, or otherwise terrorizing students to the extent that they're fleeing class (such cases exist, I'm sure, but they're extremely rare), students not doing the work at all is not the professor's problem. If a significant portion of the class is doing the work, and receiving failing grades, that might call for some adjustment of expectations and/or admission requirements (or a new, remedial class, or whatever). But not doing the work at all? Not a proffie problem.
DeleteDuring my last year at the tech school I used to teach at, I ran a service course for another department. That entire class holds the record for being the all-time worst group I ever had. Their department head did absolutely nothing about them, despite my frequent complaints to him.
DeleteI shouldn't have been surprised. A number of the students failed but qualified for supplemental exams. The protocol was that they had to formally make a request to me to write one. With this bunch, nobody ever asked and yet they managed to pass. Obviously, someone higher up allowed them to, which, in part, explained their behaviour.
I had the feeling that they could do diddly in my course and still pass because they knew they were going to. That was one of the reasons I eventually quit. There was no point in trying to teach them anything if they were going to get credit for doing next to nothing.
Tell your dumb ass dean that what you plan to do about it is fail them. That's the only thing that will help. Cuz next time, they'll know that if they don't hand in assignments, they will fail. Apparently, they have not learned that yet, probably because of your dumb ass dean.
DeleteDid I write this post? Wait, no, that's not me. Huh. I was thinking those exact things. Are you me? Who am I?
ReplyDeleteWhy are these papers all so shitty after SIXTEEN WEEKS OF CLASS!
OMFG I thought the same goddamned thing. I am slogging through the second paper right now. I have to stop myself from writing in the comments HAVE YOU LISTENED TO A FUCKING WORD I HAVE SAID THIS ENTIRE SEMESTER? Because to read these papers-- which are summaries rather than analyses, which are poorly written, which are missing MLA citations even though I have gone over and over how to do it right, which are making me want to quit my job and start an alpaca farm even though I have tenure--to read these papers is to descend into hell.
DeleteI totally agree. One of my now retired colleagues used to say that you have to give student the opportunity to fail. Otherwise, what does success mean?
DeleteAt least you get 16 weeks of class. My employers are racing each other to the bottom and standard length for all classes is now eight weeks at both institutions. I've reduced content greatly since I started teaching almost 10 years ago.
DeleteAnyway, there is very little time for any repetitions of the teach=>write=>correct=>teach and try again cycle in eight weeks. The students are starting to notice and I encourage them to complain upstairs because it is their demand for shorter and shorter degree paths that is driving the trend.
I swear to God I just spent more time reading ONE essay than the student spent writing it. It's worth 50% of their grade. 50%. Do they give a fuck? Nope, only when they see the big fat F will it suddenly be something that's the most important thing in their lives.
ReplyDeleteThey probably still care about their grades, which are related to the class. But the rule is not to care about their *educations* more than they do, and a grade is a measure of education, not the education itself. Grades can sometimes be used as an incentive (mostly of the stick kind, occasionally of the carrot kind), but that only works if one isn't facing the conditions -- and the underlying assumptions -- FML describes.
ReplyDeleteI agree that it is not my job to make students come to class but based on the angry tirads I have had to deal with on the phone my Dean thinks it is. Part of me knows it is because I his boss is putting pressure on him. Part of me as an adjunct who would never do that to my employees in my job doesn't give a flying fuck. Learn to be a good supervisor or move on. I have even tried to approach the fact that his approach fostered a sense of fear and defense but it fell on deaf ears. What I can gather is that everyone gets a "A" or he will continue to bully me. I have yet to decide if I will gather documentation to report them to their governing board to take the easy way out and give everyone an A regardless of how many assignments they turn in.
ReplyDeleteIn the tech school I used to teach at, the last president who was in charge during my time there said one day that it was the job of the instructors to make the students "successful". He never went into detail what that meant. Then again, we were still running operating as if our students were "customers", so if meeting their "needs and expectations" meant giving them high marks for crapola, then that's what I had to deliver.
DeleteBurntChrome: "To read these papers is to descend into hell."
ReplyDeleteYes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.