Rate Your Students used to be one of my favorite sites, but the farther I get from school, the less interesting I find it.
Normally, I can identify in some way with just about every post and point of view I come across.
There's this one post, however...and it's strange. Really, there are times when I could have written it. However, there's just one bit that pisses me off something awful:All of this "earnestness" about your profession is making me gag. As an undergrad, I want to know that I'm not the only one fed up with my peers. They can be stupid, slothful, selfish bastards. What is tenure for, if not to call these kids out on their b.s.? These "future leaders" couldn't put together a cogent thought if you held a gun to their head, and everyone is supposed to pat them on the back as long as Mom and Dad's tuition check clears the bank? You have a Ph.D., for chrissakes, so throw it around like it means something.
1. Tenure has little, if anything, to do with treatment of students. It's about research. Readers of RYS will know this.
2. That Ph.D certainly means something, but usually it means one is an expert in their field, not that they've got great classroom skills.
3. This poster is very, very angry. S/he conflates lots of things that I think have no reason to be conflated. For example:Tell them that you're docking their grade every time they ask if something is going to be on the test, that sitting upright and breathing doesn't earn extra credit points, and that they shouldn't have signed up for college if they didn't intend on reading anything other than highway signage, tv listings, or drive-thru menus.
Tell them that it's not your problem they've made life choices (children, mortgage payments, etc.) that hamper their ability to complete assignments. Remind them of other students who've made different choices (like jumping into the deep end of student loans and Ramen noodles) to be here and aren't asking for favors, so maybe we should all be adults and suck it up.
The lack of care here is pretty shocking. Yeah, I spent a lot of time in college despising folks I had no business looking down on, but I have long felt a sense of compassion for others.
Just to be clear, there's a giant difference between the two paragraphs. Mocking someone because they have "made life choices that hamper their ability to complete assignments" is a shitty thing to do, especially when those life "choices" include having children or having a mortgage. Seriously: who mocks other people for having a mortgage?
I know what's going on here: This person has an immense amount of privilege, and is totally blind to that fact. S/he can't comprehend that there are real and genuine obstacles to succeeding in college. That's kind of sad. I hope the RYS readership nukes them.
Saturday, September 15, 2007
Someone Needs to Lay Off the Meds
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3 comments:
While I think the student could've phrased it better, I felt a bit of empathy with his first statement you posted.
I can't tell you how many times in undergrad school that I was in a class full of slackerish idiots and the profs would still let them pass. For instance, I had a Spanish prof who was super, super nice to everyone. EVERYONE got a passing grade, even this total chode who gave a speech which proved he couldn't speak Spanish even on an introductory level. And this was a 300 level course. His speech, which was nothing more than bumbling and saying stuff like, "Yo think-o this-o sucks-o." got him a passing grade. I wanted to strangle them both.
This was just one example. If there is any truth to the student's remarks, consider it without blowing it off altogether due to some stupid things he said. Perhaps it IS time to crack down on Johnny Dipshit. These kids are learning stupidity... especially the generation that's presently college age and grew up in America. Many've learned how to eek their way by without even having to put forth what looks like effort. In college, they should learn hard knocks that prepare them for work. I fear what the professional / financial world will turn into in the next 10 years. I really do. I'm 26, and a lot of people my age and slightly older have been coddled and dumbed down- generations before us, such as baby boomers, have been too. If we look at the state of politics for instance, that is no result of smart people w/ integrity running things.
I'll say one last thing. I had an audio professor who used to do the work for the students. If we had to set up a digital compressor on something, (a 4 or 5 step process) he would quickly arrange all the settings without explaining them or what they mean, and most of the Cheetoh-brained Indiana nunkheads appreciated that. "Hah! Less work for me! This dude's awesome!" they'd say.
Take care. Glad you're listed at orblogs.
Sure - there are lots of slacker students out there. It's the attitude that this guy has that bugs me, and his weird assumption that PhDs and tenure have anything to do with classroom policies.
Give him an F, just out of principle.
When I was a student, I remember having some questions about tenure, as a few of the profs I knew who had it were not good profs at all. But that was not all of them.
Either way... take care. I'll be reading more soon I'm sure.
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