Kids Today
I don't really understand the bulk of the college students I encounter on a daily basis. I have been TAing a class all semester intended for non-astronomy majors. Astronomy is the science people generally think is the easiest, so humanities students looking to fill a science requirement often sign up for these classes thinking they will be a no-brainer. I anticipated that I would encounter certain challenges with being a part of teaching this class, probably something along the lines of deficiencies in the necessary mathematics or unfamiliarity with the approach of college science classes in general. As always, it's the things that I don't anticipate that really throw me.
Of the many things that I did not foresee, the one that shocks me most is how little my students seem to care about their academic progress. We gave a midterm exam in mid-October; of my 170 students, I bet 40 of them have not bothered to pick up their test. Since I carried them to class after the exam for two weeks to return, this also means that they are not coming to class. They have no idea if they understand the material they have been "learning" (and obviously I use that word in the broadest sense). They have no idea if they are passing or failing. They apparently just don't care. I absolutely do not understand it.
Right now, I'm trying to decide if the traditional tenure track faculty position is the career path I want to take and it's the teaching part of it that I really question. I know that I am a good teacher. (I don't mean to sound arrogant, I just know there are a few things I am good at, and teaching physical sciences is one of them.) That's not what I worry about. What I worry about is my ability to deal with students who care so little about their education that they don't even pick up their exams. I don't know if I have it in me not to take that personally, not to get pissed off and want to fail my students out of spite. (And I am pretty sure that most universities frown on that). I never saw students like this even 10 years ago when I started college. How much worse can it get 10 years from now when I am looking at faculty positions?
Of the many things that I did not foresee, the one that shocks me most is how little my students seem to care about their academic progress. We gave a midterm exam in mid-October; of my 170 students, I bet 40 of them have not bothered to pick up their test. Since I carried them to class after the exam for two weeks to return, this also means that they are not coming to class. They have no idea if they understand the material they have been "learning" (and obviously I use that word in the broadest sense). They have no idea if they are passing or failing. They apparently just don't care. I absolutely do not understand it.
Right now, I'm trying to decide if the traditional tenure track faculty position is the career path I want to take and it's the teaching part of it that I really question. I know that I am a good teacher. (I don't mean to sound arrogant, I just know there are a few things I am good at, and teaching physical sciences is one of them.) That's not what I worry about. What I worry about is my ability to deal with students who care so little about their education that they don't even pick up their exams. I don't know if I have it in me not to take that personally, not to get pissed off and want to fail my students out of spite. (And I am pretty sure that most universities frown on that). I never saw students like this even 10 years ago when I started college. How much worse can it get 10 years from now when I am looking at faculty positions?
posted by Meredith | 10:13 PM
4 Comments:
How I share this frustration! And I have to point out that these same non-exam-retrieving students are the same ones who will come whining to you about their shitty grades at the end of the semester. I miss teaching, but not that part of it. Must I remind you of the time I told a student to shut up and take her F like a man? To her face?!
You just gotta focus on the good ones--there are 2 in every hundred or so.
Yes, but when I was teaching at the same time I was forbidden from failing a student who missed 4 of the 7 classes that semester and who FORGED a note from his coach explaining that I had to let him out of these classes for fictitious wrestling matches. *sigh*
It sounds like you were teaching at the wrong school. At my school, it's up to each prof to decide how to handle a student's grade based on attendance. I figure if they don't come, they will fail anyway b/c they've missed material. I do agree though about the apathy of today's students. I am constantly baffled by students who just don't seem to put any effort in, or don't come to pick up work, etc. I just try not to let those people get to me and focus on the good ones instead. They are out there, and they're the ones that make teaching worthwhile.
Yeah...wait until y'all see what I'm sending your way in just 8 short years! If they make it that far.
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