The End (Of The Semester) Is Nigh!
As a college professor, I simultaneously enjoy and dread the end of the semester. I enjoy it because it means a break is iminent, either Christmas or the summer. I dread the semester's end because it means a littany of students will be calling on me who have done absolutely nothing all semester, yet feel compelled to litigate a grade for themselves that they have not earned.
This is simply the result of consumer culture. Students believe that being at a university is a right, not a privilege, and as "customers" they should be able to negotiate the best possible deal for themselves from the professor. Now, far from being an elitist, I wish more people went to college. I also wish more college students took their studies seriously. However, the mood in America right now is decidedly anti-intellectual, and students who don't know a damn thing about the way the world turns feel compelled to challenge new ideas rather than consider them. "Different" is problematic in America at the moment, and the mentality of some of my students reflects this. Rather than actually learn anything during their time in college, so many students are simply engaged in the process to put off adulthood and to get a diploma that theoretically renders them qualified for life outside of the ivory tower. The question I often pose to them upon the conclusion of the courses I teach is this "what if you actually learn something in the process during this chase for credentials that actually changes your worldview, making it seem different than the way you thought it was before you came here?" After all, learning implies a certain degree of change, if not evolution.
Many of the students who come to litigate their grades are simply unable to demonstrate to me that they've learned anything. I ask them straight up, "what have you learned in my class?" Their answers are inarticulate, fumbling, desperate. Their pride in being able to "B.S." a paper comes crashing down around them, and I admit a small part of me enjoys watching them muddle through their first consideration of having actually learned anything about the world or themselves over the course of the past four months. The larger part, however, sinks as I realize that despite my efforts and all the bombast, none of the example I've tried to set for this young mind seems to have made any impact or even slightly resonated whatsoever.
This is not to say that my students, or students in general, are largely incompetent. Quite the contrary, most are able and articulate, respectful and appreciative of their situation. They constitute a silent majority. I even respect those who haven't done a thing, but simply don't have the nerve to ask for a decent grade because they know that they haven't earned it. When I deal with litigious students, I simply depersonalize the situation. I tell them that it's nothing personal, and on a barstool we'd likely get on just fine, but that is not the nature of our relationship. It's just like the military. Some make it through basic training, some don't. Some make it through sniper school, some wash out. It doesn't mean they are bad people, or incompetent, or ignorant. It just means based on the criteria for evaluation, they didn't make the grade. Their ability to accept this, try and creatively rectify it or simply bitch their way through the bureaucracy says alot about their character or lack thereof.
Ultimately, I have to remind myself of something a colleague of mine told me a year ago. This seasoned veteran of the trade told me that sometimes when you're dealing with students, you just want to shake them and say "Stop acting like an 18-21 year old!" There's something to that, and I'll try and remember it as I get through the last weeks of the semester.
This is simply the result of consumer culture. Students believe that being at a university is a right, not a privilege, and as "customers" they should be able to negotiate the best possible deal for themselves from the professor. Now, far from being an elitist, I wish more people went to college. I also wish more college students took their studies seriously. However, the mood in America right now is decidedly anti-intellectual, and students who don't know a damn thing about the way the world turns feel compelled to challenge new ideas rather than consider them. "Different" is problematic in America at the moment, and the mentality of some of my students reflects this. Rather than actually learn anything during their time in college, so many students are simply engaged in the process to put off adulthood and to get a diploma that theoretically renders them qualified for life outside of the ivory tower. The question I often pose to them upon the conclusion of the courses I teach is this "what if you actually learn something in the process during this chase for credentials that actually changes your worldview, making it seem different than the way you thought it was before you came here?" After all, learning implies a certain degree of change, if not evolution.
Many of the students who come to litigate their grades are simply unable to demonstrate to me that they've learned anything. I ask them straight up, "what have you learned in my class?" Their answers are inarticulate, fumbling, desperate. Their pride in being able to "B.S." a paper comes crashing down around them, and I admit a small part of me enjoys watching them muddle through their first consideration of having actually learned anything about the world or themselves over the course of the past four months. The larger part, however, sinks as I realize that despite my efforts and all the bombast, none of the example I've tried to set for this young mind seems to have made any impact or even slightly resonated whatsoever.
This is not to say that my students, or students in general, are largely incompetent. Quite the contrary, most are able and articulate, respectful and appreciative of their situation. They constitute a silent majority. I even respect those who haven't done a thing, but simply don't have the nerve to ask for a decent grade because they know that they haven't earned it. When I deal with litigious students, I simply depersonalize the situation. I tell them that it's nothing personal, and on a barstool we'd likely get on just fine, but that is not the nature of our relationship. It's just like the military. Some make it through basic training, some don't. Some make it through sniper school, some wash out. It doesn't mean they are bad people, or incompetent, or ignorant. It just means based on the criteria for evaluation, they didn't make the grade. Their ability to accept this, try and creatively rectify it or simply bitch their way through the bureaucracy says alot about their character or lack thereof.
Ultimately, I have to remind myself of something a colleague of mine told me a year ago. This seasoned veteran of the trade told me that sometimes when you're dealing with students, you just want to shake them and say "Stop acting like an 18-21 year old!" There's something to that, and I'll try and remember it as I get through the last weeks of the semester.
posted by MK | 1:55 PM
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