Grrrrrrrrrrrr! I am not a happy camper. I've been in a stew for the
last few
days. It always happens at this time of the semester. I was going to let it
pass, as I
usually do, with mumbles and rumbles under my breathe or in the sanctity of a
colleague/s
office. But, not this time.
'This course isn't what I expected," her voice meekly told me over the
phone. She
wanted to drop from the Perspectives course on the Holocaust.
"What did you expect."
"Just some lectures, a few readings, and a test. You were supposed to
be a fun
teacher. It wasn't fun being crammed into a corner for an entire period on
that first day
as if we were in a cattle car. And those films aren't fun. You're not easy.
This course
is serious and hard. I didn't expect to have to work in this class. It's only
a two hour
Core perspectives course."
"Fun? This is a course on the Holocaust? You want me to crack jokes
about the
murder of 12 million people? This course has been an emotional roller coaster
for me, and
you want fun?"
"Well, that's your reputation."
"What's the real reason you want to drop the course?"
Silence.
"What's the real reason?"
"I have to spend outside time for this class. I have to go listen to
speakers who
survived the Holocaust. I'm not comfortable looking at the horrible films you
show in
class. I have to write journals about my reactions to them and what we see in
class, and
talk of my own prejudices to see how prejudices like them can led to the
Holocaust. And
then, I have to help write a play in the first person as if I was a by-stander
who let
these things happen. I don't have time for all that."
"You don't have time? Golly gee whiz," I answered with a tone of more
than a
little sarcasm. "What do you have time for? You've got time for your
sorority? You've
got time to go home and see mommy and daddy and boyfriend almost every weekend?
You've got
time for going to the local drinking holes? And you don't have time to work?
What's the
real reason?"
" I don't want to do that, especially write the play."
"You don't want to do that? I'm not sure I'll sign that form."
"Why?"
"Because you should stick by your commitment. I told you the first day
of class
while you were all crowed in the corner of the room to simulate a cattle car
heading for
Auschwitz that this was going to be a demanding class, that if you weren't
ready to put in
the time and effort, you should do yourself and me a favor and drop the course,
and that I
had a waiting list of twenty-five students ready to fill your seat. You knew
what the
requirements of the course were from day one.....Are you going to bail out on
the others
in your writing community?"
"Yes."
"What's your major?"
"Education."
I nearly choked. "Education!?!?!?!??! You're going to be a
teacher?!?!?!?!? Is
that what you're going to let your students do? Not do an assignment just
because they
don't want to or because they supposedly don't have the time?"
"No."
"Then, you're being a hypocrite?"
"....Yes....I guess so."
"No 'guess so.' I guess you don't think that is a big deal. Maybe you
ought
think about changing your major....."
Grrrrrrrr. It's the time of mid-term. Students are scurrying to drop
courses so
their GPA doesn't drop and the Hope Scholarship doesn't drop them. Some of
them act like
a herd of cattle infected with mad cow disease on a stampede ready to trample
anyone who
gets in their way. They can be disrespectful, irrational, confrontational,
assaulting,
and abusive if they don't get their childish way. Most professors sign the
form with a
sneering "good riddance" or a sighing "what can I do" attitude. Not me. I
grrrrrrrrrowl.
This the one time each semester I almost want to agree with the academic
naysayers. This
is the time I see what they mean when they rant and rave against grade
inflation and
coddling of students.
And, for this brief time, they're right. It is coddling time. It is
grade
inflation time. In our university system, a student can drop a course as late
as mid-term
without any consequences, without any accountability, not even a feather tap on
the back
of his or her hand. Never mind student errant behavior, never mind
irresponsibility,
never mind a lack of discipline, never mind the pursuit of less than
mediocrity, never
mind preferring to crack a keg rather than a book, never mind wanting to take
the road
most taken, never mind seldom showing up in class, never mind not doing
assignments or
handing them in on time, never mind sleeping off a hang-over or worse, never
mind rushing
a sorority or fraternity rather than rushing to class, never mind all this and
the other
stuff of which excuses are made.
We condoning such attitudes? What are we modeling here? I'll probably
get into
trouble for publicly airing my distaste. I really don't care. My rabbi always
says,
"write the letter and then throw it away." I did. This is the fourth letter!
The policy
is wrong; it's stupid; it's criminal; it's obscene; it's unconscionable; it's
immoral;
it's uneducational. It's not caring about the student. I'm not sure what it's
a caring
about. It would be nice to hear the reasoning behind it. But, no one has yet
to offer me
a convincing explanation or rationale for this policy other than a discussion
closing
"it's Board of Regents policy." Want to give a student ten days to drop a
course at the
beginning of the semester, fine. Want to allow a student to drop a course for
extenuating
personal, family, or medical reasons throughout the semester, I'm all for it.
But, just
because they don't want to do the work, or the work too hard or challenging, or
it will
adversely affect their GPA? No! Can you hear those naysayers saying, See?
This is how
low higher education has sunk."
So, each time at this time of each semester this policy brings out the
old '60s
protester in me. It raises the hair on the nape of my neck; it reddens my
face; it
tightens my lips. This time I won't go silently into the good night.
You know, I am a wholeness teacher. I pride myself on being a
character educator.
I struggle in my classes to help students develop their character, to help them
bring out
the potential within them, to overcome the limits they have placed on
themselves or have
allowed to be placed on them, to learn that there are consequences to their
actions, to
stop blaming, to assume responsibility, to be disciplined, to be principled, to
pursue
excellence, to be accountable, to give it everything they've got, to believe in
themselves, to spit in the eye of difficulty, to pick up the gauntlet of
challenges, to
stretch themselves, to take risks, to transform obstacle into opportunity. And
then, at
mid-term this comes along as a threat to neutralize all my efforts, taking
their eyes off
learning and back to grading, encouraging them to become unaccountable whiners
and wimps
who are all too ready to blame and all too ready to assign responsibility to
someone else,
all too ready to want only convenience and comfort and guarantees. What are we
teaching
them, that it's okay to blame their shortcomings supposedly on circumstances
beyond their
control, on dead alarm clocks, on flat tires, on inconsiderate professors, on
torturous
practice schedules, on too much of a load, on dead car batteries, on police
pullovers, on
time-consuming Greek rushes, on lack of parking, on inconsiderate room mates,
on lost
keys, on locked doors, on demanding parents, on challenge, etc, etc, etc.?
One of my colleagues in another department told me as I snarled about
this policy
over a cup of coffee, "I thought you were student oriented." He was serious.
Not student
oriented? Me? You think this policy is student-oriented? I'm upset with this
policy
because I give a damn about the students, because this policy doesn't teach
students a
"stick-to-itness," because the habit created by following this policy will come
back to
bite them in their buns. We all want students to make good choices. But
where are they
to learn? Certainly not from this policy of catering and leniency. It doesn't
teach them
to improve. It doesn't teach them resolve. It doesn't' teach them to be
accountable. It
doesn't teach them how to become better persons, only how to get a better GPA.
It doesn't
teach them how to overcome challenges, only to how to back off from them. It
doesn't
teach them to face fears and tackle unpleasant tasks. Is that how they learn
to place a
higher value on learning rather than getting grades? All it teaches them is to
rationalize, offer excuses, submitting to impulses. They can just walk away
without a by
your leave. Is this how we teach them to dig out from the hole they've dug
themselves
into? Is this the clock by which they should set their moral and ethical
watches? Is
this how they learn about the perseverance they need when trying to master a
job or get
the right job, finding the right relationship or working through the problems?
Is this
how they learn to make good choices? Is this how we teach them to resist
self-indulgence?
Is this how they learn to resist putting their integrity on the auction block?
What a
great price we're teaching them to pay for so little in return.
Grrrrrrrrrrrrr. I am tenured. I am senior professor on my campus. I
have a
reputation for being an iconoclast. And, in this one instance I use them all
to the hilt.
I know I'm flailing at windmills. I know I can't stop a student from dropping
a course,
but I sure don't have to make it easy, convenient, and comfortable for them to
do so. I
know people roll their eyes when I take this semesterly stance. Nevertheless,
I just
won't go quietly into the night. In protest of this demeaning regulation, I
don't make
myself easily available. Let them search high and low to find me. At least,
some will
show some energy and initiative for the first time. Anyway, if they are
unlucky enough to
catch up to me, I make sure they're not comfortable in my presence. I'll give
them a
pyroclastic blast. I'll read them such a riot act about responsibility,
commitment,
self-discipline, perseverance, pursuit of excellence, self-respect,
tail-tucking it
straightens out their hairdos, blows them backward, and tatters their clothes.
Then, I
won't even sign the drop form. Let them scurry to find someone else do it!
Get the idea I'm mad about the signals this sends to students, about
the life
lessons this teaches them, about the lousy habits it lures them into?
Grrrrrrr!
Make it a good day.
--Louis--
Louis Schmier www.therandomthoughts.com
Department of History www.halcyon.com/arborhts/louis.html
Valdosta State University
Valdosta, Georgia 31698 /\ /\ /\ /\
(229-333-5947) /^\\/ \/ \ /\/\__/\ \/\
/ \/ \_ \/ / \/
/\/ \
/\
//\/\/ /\
\__/__/_/\_\ \_/__\
/\"If you want to climb
mountains,\ /\
_ / \ don't practice on mole
hills" -
---
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