Thanks, Cullen. I know it's not my fault but one of the longstanding edumacational paradigms is that if a student fails, you first look to blame the teacher.
The fact is, looking back over the exams - most of the students in the class scored respectably (70s and 80s, and this is not an easy class). It was just the bad-attitude guys that really bombed.
Still, since I gave them the "left back at Howard Johnson's" lecture that MY stats teacher gave me - basically, he used the metaphor of a family trip where someone who had been sleeping in the car goes to the restroom and gets left behind because they didn't tell anyone they were going to the restroom - I'm going to take a day and review the stuff that was missed. Or at least the stuff that was badly missed.
What aggravates me is that I have been really up-front about "do you need me to go over this again?" or "Do you want me to work another example?" and none of them ever ask for one. (Once in a while one of the other students will say, "I didn't quite get that, can you go over it again?" and I do. Or they come to my office hours.)
So, whatever.
It does sort of frustrate me that it seems that people are choosing leisure over responsibility because in the coming month, the run-up to Christmas, I'd love to take piles of time and bake cookies and make candy and sew up homemade decorations and all that crazy Martha Stewart stuff. But I don't - or rather, I set aside one Saturday to bake cookies and that's it - because I know I need to spend my time on other things.
I think that's actually the main lesson of adulthood: Sometimes what you need to do and what you want to do do not coincide, and you should usually choose doing what you need to do.
And I think it's again this stuck-in-adolescence problem - so many kids, their parents bail them out at the first sign of trouble. Or their parents go, "Oh, that's okay, you can do your chores later..." because they want to be their kid's friend.
I don't know where I'm going with this. I do think there's a tie-in to the whole loss of adulthood thing.
I'm just still gobsmacked at the guy who thought he could claim he "read the date wrong" that it was due, after I announced it three times in class and had it in big bold letters on top of the exam.
Tuesday, November 06, 2007
Better
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3 comments:
I'm not saying this to be flip but do you often wonder if some of these people are in need of eye exams?
You're right about the whole blame-the-teacher idea; now it's tied into an entitlement doctrine. No-win situation, I guess, but I applaud your approach. Fair but tempered a bit with mercy.
When I was teaching, I ALWAYS asked if I needed to go over it again. Did everyone understand? All that. But rarely did anyone pipe up. Then, come exam time, bombs away!
It is very frustrating. You try to make it an environment where they can learn, and they just don't help themselves, then they blame you.
I agree it has something to do with the stunted adulthood and irresponsibility that is taking over generation next (or whatever we are on now).
heh. Love the Howard Johnson's metaphor. I use the Express Train: One start, one stop, and if you can't keep up, it's damn painful.
This is the single biggest problem with teaching young adults: making them act like it.
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