Wednesday, January 07, 2009
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The world needs ditch-diggers, too.
About Me
- Angry Professor
- I am a tenured faculty member at a large state university. My teaching efforts primarily consist of delivering statistics lectures to social science majors. These experiences have colored my perspective somewhat.
Disclaimer
This blog is 100% FERPA compliant. It is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to any persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental. The Angry Professor is the creation of Mr. Norrell, who lives in Guam with four rhesus monkeys and a gecko. He has never taught at a university.
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10 comments:
I'm sorry, and I've groused about students once or twice in my life, but he's full of it this time. There are thousands of hard-working young musicians out there, millions of young people who put their heart and soul into their work. Why they don't do it for our classes is beside the point: there's greatness in every generation.
Marsalis' problem is with JAZZ: decades of modernist "if it sounds weird, it must be new and good" and a century of essentialist "authenticity" has created a scene in which quality is a meaningless measure of anything, and "skills" are an old-fashioned silliness.
Ah, Preceeding person, I can appreciate your viewpoint. But I believe if you remove "music" from the equation, he's not so far off the mark. I've seen students in the English Department and (saints preserve us) Education - for whom these comments are tragically right on. There are no consequences and no acceptance of reality. After being told how brilliant, adorable, sweet, precious and *advanced* they are, these youngsters refuse to accept anything other than praise and tend (from my observation) to try to move in circles where they do have some skill rather than try anything new where they may not. DISCLAIMER: this is my opinion - based on several years at a major university as the Department Secretary. A different perspective from the professorial one, but honestly, having typed and edited papers and spent long hours talking to these "collidj stoodents", there were days when only a cup of tea, some Jane Austen and a good night's sleep could shore me up to go back.
Dale-Harriet, your perceptions are accurate. Ahistoricality, I can also believe your claims about young musicians. However, in my statistics and other classes, the students have been raised to believe that part of their evaluations depends on their (perceived) efforts and not results. Having wanted an A badly enough or tried for an A hard enough is, in their minds, sufficient justification for an A. Their failure to obtain an A is, therefore, the fault of the instructor and not because of any of their own shortcomings.
Having wanted an A badly enough or tried for an A hard enough is, in their minds, sufficient justification for an A. Their failure to obtain an A is, therefore, the fault of the instructor and not because of any of their own shortcomings.
I've seen that, too. And I get the ones who've "always gotten A's on my writing in other classes" and they can't tell the difference between gut reactions and evidence. I've seen kids who were smart enough to skate by on little effort through HS and thought they could do the same in college (and could, if they stayed out of certain classes). That's in the 100-level surveys, yeah.
But I also see students who get hooked on history, who get excited when they realize there are primary sources on their topic, and want to go on to grad school. I see students who have such a passion for theater, or music, or chemistry, that they learn to think like professionals, produce really high-quality projects.
The blanket contempt for his students: that's the sign of a burnout. And the sign of someone in a field with misplaced values to begin with.
I am just an engineer. On the side I am currently involved in some mild eduction activity with university students - I wish I won't. More precise, I wish they wouldn't be involved.
I would love someone at least trying for an A. What I hear from the spoiled brats are things like Thanks for making my life easier. I hope you got friends just like yourself.
Needless to say, that motivated me to have a second, much closer look at that student's work. I figured it was plagiarized. When confronted with it, the student went ballistic and couldn't see his fault. Dad is apparently paying a lot of money so he is entitled to good grades.
The good news, I have a real job and don't need to do this teaching on the side. I was asked to do it as a favor. Next semester they have to find someone else to do them a favor.
If we had a few bucks for every student who has a Math ACT lower than 21 and who says, "I've always been good at math," we wouldn't have nearly the budget shortfall that we're looking at right now.
So, is playing this the first day of class and saying, "If this is you, get out" inappropriate?
I would have to reluctantly agree with him. In the couple of grad-level literature classes I've taken recently, I've been amazed at the whining. In my last class, the prof was a hard-ass, sure, but isn't that what we were paying good money for? He was a brilliant editor, and I leaned so much about my writing and how to be a better essayist and critic. I never could argue with a single comment and instead worked hard to improve.
I found out later that he flunked at least one doctoral student. Really? How? I mean, if you're at that level, then why wouldn't you put in the effort, improve your work, and do what it takes? I didn't get it then, and I don't get it now.
I am sympathetic to his sentiments but his idea of how "Harvard" (shorthand here for elite education, I suppose) works is plain wrong. An elite education is not a commodity or like most consumer services, which is how he presents it. A Harvard student won't transfer to Yale just because his grades are too low, nor does Harvard much fear that. Besides, most Harvard students would be pretty shocked at getting a B. Believe me, I gave them out enough in my time there.
I like that he said 'much like the generation before them', because that is true also.
Thank you for the video and for the url!
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