Me, me, me, me, ME!!!
Excellent article in today's NYT about teaching undergrads.
Since I'm currently teaching a class of 60 (count 'em!) undergraduate brats - and, coincidentally, giving them an exam tomorrow - this could not come at a better time.
Having received emails like:
With an impending exam - God (if he existed) help us all. Students who don't even bother to attend suddenly wake up and expect to learn 4-5 weeks worth of material in a 30-minute review session. And, when they don't, they have the audacity to complain!
Just yesterday, one lacklustre student who rarely attends was complaining that I was going too fast in class. I told the same student to meet me after class, and while I'm explaining things to her, she decides to SMS a friend and converse across the classroom (no less) with another, at the same time. Why do I bother?
Like I always say: Teaching is like being a vet - you bend over backwards to help the animals, only to have them bite you back in the end. Ungrateful wretches!
Here's a highlight from the article:
Since I'm currently teaching a class of 60 (count 'em!) undergraduate brats - and, coincidentally, giving them an exam tomorrow - this could not come at a better time.
Having received emails like:
should i come to class tomorrow?and
what's on da exam?from email addresses ranging from imsosexy2362@... to snoopdawggydawgg@... I have first-hand experience of what these guys are talking about. And I'm quoting verbatim, mind you.
With an impending exam - God (if he existed) help us all. Students who don't even bother to attend suddenly wake up and expect to learn 4-5 weeks worth of material in a 30-minute review session. And, when they don't, they have the audacity to complain!
Just yesterday, one lacklustre student who rarely attends was complaining that I was going too fast in class. I told the same student to meet me after class, and while I'm explaining things to her, she decides to SMS a friend and converse across the classroom (no less) with another, at the same time. Why do I bother?
Like I always say: Teaching is like being a vet - you bend over backwards to help the animals, only to have them bite you back in the end. Ungrateful wretches!
Here's a highlight from the article:
And here's the article...While once professors may have expected deference, their expertise seems to have become just another service that students, as consumers, are buying. So students may have no fear of giving offense, imposing on the professor's time or even of asking a question that may reflect badly on their own judgment.
For junior faculty members, the barrage of e-mail has brought new tension into their work lives, some say, as they struggle with how to respond. Their tenure prospects, they realize, may rest in part on student evaluations of their accessibility.
posted by The Intellectual Masturbater | 12:39 PM
4 Comments:
I am surprised that professors give out emails like this. I received my college degree eight years ago and no one 'did email' then. If we wanted to speak to our professors we had to go see them in person at very limited office hours times. It was intimidating to go into their office and the dumb types of questions that are being asked, as the articles state, would never have been asked before email.
I also blame the cell phone mindset. With cell phones many people think they can be less responsible and even plan less. Example: not wanting to write down a grocery list, and spouse says, "when I get to the store I will call you and you tell me what to get". Once I was in line at a local ice cream shop which only has 8 flavors (they vary daily). The father was not speaking to the daughter. When they got close to ordering the father phoned his wife and had spoke for about 3 minutes about what flavor would their daughter like? He ignored his daughter who was tugging on his shirt (she was about 4.5 or 5 years old). He ordered up her ice cream only for her to explain she wanted another flavor. Why the heck did he not ask her?
I hear people in stores all the time discussing what to buy, what flavor yogurt, what size this or that.
This is becoming an 'on demand' society. Rather than think and plan ahead or make decisions on ones' own (i.e. what type of notebook to buy), people think they can just phone up or email or get people on their Blackberry to ask their question exactly when they want to hear the answer.
I hate it!
i agree with you christinemm - but it looks like that's the way this country is heading.
my solution? not much you can do about the father-daughter situation in the grocery store (which is probably just another way of having the father avoid interaction with the child), but when i get emails like the kind i mentioned in the post, i either respond sternly or just ignore them. might as well teach them some manners for free...
i have to say however, that email is not overall a bad thing. increased accessibility to students is good. and there are several students who, of course, follow all the rules and are very polite/professional. but that wouldn't make as interesting a post, would it? :)
heh!! i can't belive u got email asking whts on da exam... i don't think students in India can send such mails ..
hey kusum,
you'll be surprised - i have some indian (both, from india itself as well as abcds) and i've had interesting experiences with both!
but that's for a different post...
im
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