Education: What's Wrong With Our System, Post 1

[jpskewedthrone]

If you've noticed, I've been somewhat quiet around here for the last few days. This is mostly because classes for the Fall semester have started up and I've been busy getting used to the new schedule. In particular, getting used to waking up at 6am so I can hit the road for the hour one-way commute at 7am. I'm not complaining about this--I get to chose my own times for my classes, so early classes are entirely my fault--but going from not waking up until I feel like it to 6am isn't exactly easy. So that's why I've been quiet. I haven't been doing anything in the way of writing. I'll start that up again once the semester settles down a little bit. Also, I don't know what I should be working on yet. I'll be talking to my editor this coming Wednesday, hopefully, and then I'll know if she's interested in any of my projects and that should give me some guidance on what to work on next. (I could be working on a short story that's been bouncing around in my head, but . . .)

In any case, that's what's up with me. However, something else has happened recently that's bothered me quite a bit. Before people start jumping to conclusions, I want to say that this story is NOT about me. I'm not trying to disguise this as one of my problems by saying "my colleague" and such. Similarly, this is not something that happened at my current college, SUNY Oneonta. This happened to someone I know at a different university. BUT, I know that this is happening at many universities and colleges across the country, because I've worked at more than one university or college in my lifetime and I've seen it in action. This particular story only highlights the issue.

I don't normally talk about things like this on my blog, and I don't want this to come across as a rant. Rather, I just want to point out that things like this are going on and that I strongly believe that this is one of the reasons that our education system isn't up to par. Note that I said ONE of the reaons. There are multiple factors that are all contributing to this problem, and if people are open to hearing my thoughts on what these are, then I'll continue posting these types of things.



Here's the situation: A colleague of mine taught a summer course this past summer for the Continuing Education department of a university. It was a statistics course, and this is NOT a small university. In fact, this is a major university with a well-respected name that generally will get you a job just by mentioning that you went there. Summer courses usually run for about 6-8 weeks, meet everyday, and generally pack a full semester's worth of subject material into that time period. It's rough, but most students know that ahead of time and if they don't, they find out quick.

So the instructor taught the course. Some issues came up, in particular with two students. One of the students came to the instructor a few weeks into the semester and proclaimed that they were going on vacation for the next two weeks and that they'd miss the first exam and a few homework assignments and wanted to know when they could make them up. This meant they'd be missing 2 weeks of a 6-8 week course. That's a third to a quarter of the entire course. The instructor was flabbergasted that the student assumed that taking 2 weeks off in the middle of such a course would be considered "OK" and that it wasn't an issue. However, the instructor told them that they could take the exam immediately after they got back and also allowed them to make up one of the missed assignments if they handed it in immediately after they got back. (Note: If this had been my class, I would have told them they had to decide whether they were taking the course or taking a vacation. If they took the vacation and stayed in the course, they'd get a 0 on the exam and all assignments missed and they'd have to hope and pray they could make up all those lost points with the rest of the course materials . . . which wouldn't be mathematically possible the way my classes are structured. You don't schedule a vacation for 2 weeks in the middle of a 6-8 week course and expect the instructor to allow you to make the missed material up.)

Needless to say, this student was not happy with the situation or its resolution (even though I felt the instructor was being very considerate and generous; too considerate and generous in fact). At this point, the student and a friend of the student in the class, began to protest whenever an assignment was given. They'd claim that the assignment was too difficult, that the expectations from them were too high, that they couldn't possibly complete the assignment in the time given, that the instructor wasn't teaching them the material well enough to do the assignments, etc. There were three other students in the class and none of them felt the protests were valid, to the point that they even approached the instructor outside of class to tell them they thought everything in the course was fine, they were doing a good job teaching, and everyone else handed the assignments in on time with no problems. They also informed the instructor that the two students were attempting to recruit the rest of the class to their cause outside of class.

In any case, the course ended. The instructor gave the two students who were causing problems a C because that's what their grades warranted, and the rest of the students got B's and A's, because that's what their grades warranted. Mostly this was because the 2 students causing problems refused to complete a significant portion of the assignments, complaining about their difficulty, etc. The others handed in everything. As usual at most universities and colleges, the students get to fill out course evaluations at the end of the semester to let the administration know what they thought of the course and the instructor.

A few weeks later, the instructor got a call from the department to come in for a meeting. The instructor knew what it was going to be about, of course: the administration wanted to discuss the course evaluations. The instructor had gotten an average of high 3's on everything out of 7. But in particular they wanted to discuss the written evaluations. In fact, they only wanted to talk about 2 of the written evaluations.

So the instructor arrived for the meeting and this is how the meeting played out: The administration had the instructor read the 2 evaluations from the 2 students, which were of course inflammatory, derogatory, and in the end downright cruel. Some of the claims in the evaluations were blatantly false. After the instructor was forced to read these evaluations in their entirety, the administration informed them that in order to continue working for them in the Fall, they would have to improve their evaluation scores to something above a 6 average, and that they would have to take on a "mentor" instructor who would give them lectures and a class structure to use in order to insure that they got a 6 average or better. This "mentor" would help them design the exams and quizzes and such, becaue this "mentor" had always gotten a 6 average or better on their own evaluations.

The administration did not ask the instructor to explain the situation that gave rise to the 2 evaluations. They did not ask the instructor to provide examples of lectures, quizzes, and exams, so that they could determine whether or not the course had been taught effectively or fairly. And they did not bring up the other 3 evaluations, which must, mathematically (I'll explain later), have had good things to say. They did not allow the instructor to defend themselves in any way, shape, or form.

In effect, the administration condemned the instructor based on 2 evaluations, without knowing the situation behind those evaluations.

The instructor decided, in the end, that their integrity as a teacher was more important than keeping their job, and so a few days before the semester began they informed the department that, because of the unfair restrictions imposed on them by the administration (the "mentor") and the lack of any attempt to allow them to defend themselves, they would no longer be working for the university. And so now an instructor who is more than capable of teaching these courses effectively no longer has a job. Because of two students.

There are multiple things wrong with this situation and the administration's reaction to it. The first and foremost to my mind is that the administration listened to 2 out of 5 evaluations, completely ignoring the other 3 (which statistically had to be excellent), and never gave the instructor a chance to defend themselves. They assumed that the instructor was at fault based on 2 student opinions. That's it. Now, if the administration had said, "Hmm, we have a few rather vicious evaluations from 2 students in this class, let's see what the instructor has to say about this," that would be different (although even this reaction based on 2 evaluations is too extreme to me). If they'd said they wanted to see the instructor's lectures, some quizzes, the exams, the final, and when they perused all of this and how the course was graded and found that the expectations of the instructor were unfair to the student . . . fine. But they didn't do that. They sided with the students without considering the instructor's side, and that's where I think the universities and colleges are going completely wrong. The situation has become, "Please the students, at the cost of their education." In essence, the administration of a significant portion of the universities and colleges are catering to the students, allowing the students to run the university.

Consider this instructor's numerical evaluations. In order to get a high 3 average out of a possibly 7 using 5 evaluations, and assuming that the 2 students gave the instructor all 0s or 1s, the other three evaluations must have contained nearly all 6s and 7s. There's no way to avereage 2 scores with 3 scores and get above a 3.5 average otherwise. So why did the administration ignore the other 3 evaluations? They didn't even take into account the written evaluations, which were good and said the class was taught well and graded fairly. Why did they ignore them?

They ignored them because they want their instructors to get an average of 6 or higher. Why? So that their department "looks good" to the rest of the university. I've taught math for a long time. I believe I'm a fairly good instructor. But this is math. Students in math--and in particular, students taking math at the level of an introductory course like this one--generally hate the subject before they even step into the classroom, and that hatred transfers to the instructor before THEY even step into the classroom, so expecting an average evaluation in a math class to be at least 6 out of 7 is . . . insane. In order to achieve that average, the instructor is either a GENIUS teacher of the highest magnitude, seen only once in a millenium . . . or they've rigged the way the students are graded so that the students do not have to actually learn anything in the class in order to get an A. A student who gets an A without learning anything in the course and without doing any work is, of course, going to give such an instructor the highest praise, in general.

But that student hasn't learned anything.

If I were teaching an introductory course of this nature, I would expect to receive an average evaluation at the end of the semester of maybe 3.5. I'd consider that good. Because of the level of the class, the general mathematical level of the student, and the fact that I expect my students to know how to do that math by the end of the course. If they can't, then they don't pass.

The administration's expectations of the instructor in this department are unreasonable in my opinion. I think they'd be unreasonable to any math instructor out there who's had any experience teaching at this level and has any self-respect about their teaching ability and ensuring that the students know the math required by the end of the semester.

I find the suggestion by the administration in this case to be insulting. In effect, they were telling the instructor that they could not teach and that in order to keep their job they would have to use someone else's technique, approach, and teaching philosophy in their classroom. The fact that they were supposed to achieve such an unreasonable average on their evaluations boiled down to telling the instructor that it didn't matter how much the student knew at the end of the semester, they were to pass with flying colors. In effect, they were telling the instructor that their job was not to teach math, but to babysit the students for 6-8 weeks. As an instructor of math, I completely agree with this instructor's decision to not accept those conditions and to quit. I'm certain that the administration did not expect this reaction, considering today's job market. They expected the instructor to forego their integrity, grit their teeth, and bow down before this "mentor." I'm glad that this did not happen, although I'm pissed that a good instructor will no longer have a job.

As I said, there are other things wrong with this situation: the assumption by the students that they are entitled to a specific grade simply by paying for the course; the assumption by the students that they would not have to work for their grade; the assumption by the one student in particular that it would "OK" for them to miss a minimum of a quarter of the class and still pass; the underlining fact that the administration doesn't seem to be interested in education, but rather student happiness; etc. I'd like to talk about those issues as well, but this post is getting quite long so I'll leave those discussions for another day. But I find the most disturbing element of this situation, the element that I want to highlight in this post, is the fact that the administration no longer seems to support the instructor--the person they have hired to teach, after a lengthy hiring process--over the student. I'm not advocating that departments and universities and colleges simply support their instructors blindly, but there should be an unwritten contract of faith between them and their instructors. They should believe their instructors first and foremost when such a situation arises, until they have significant evidence that, in fact, the instructor is indeed being unfair to the students or is not teaching to the best of their abilities.

In this situation, there was blind faith in the student, and no displayed faith in the instructor, who has spent their entire life up to this point attempting to become the best teacher they could possibly be. They (the administration) should have given the instructor a chance to explain the situation. They should have looked at the instructor's materials and had another statistics instructor determine whether or not the instructor was in fact teaching the subject material appropriately and whether the exams and quizzes given were fair. They should have allowed the instructor a say before they decided upon an action, and certainly before suggesting the instructor accept a "mentor." (And before people go ballistic thinking I don't agree with the idea of mentoring, stop. I believe mentors can be invaluable. But what the administration wanted in this case was not a "mentor." They wanted the instructor to teach EXACTLY like the mentor, as if the instructor were simply a voicebox, not an individual. That's not mentoring, which is why I have "mentor" in quotes for most of this post.) In essence, the administration should have supported the instructor over the voice of 2 students who obviously had a score to settle.

I'm sorry to say that the students won in this case: they created a situation in which the instructor was forced to quit or sacrifice their integrity as a teacher. That was their goal, simply because this instructor was going to make them work for their grades. I'd like to say that this was an isolated case, an aberation in the system, but I've worked at enough universities and colleges to see the shift in the administration's attitude from support of the instructor to support of the student. And it's not isolated to a specific region of the U.S. or even a specific level of college education. I've seen it at the university level, the college level, and at the community college level. I'm happy to say that I have not seen this happening at SUNY Oneonta, where I currently work. It's one of the reasons that I'm working hard to STAY at SUNY Oneonta.

Again, I'm not saying that the administration needs to blindly support its faculty at all times: they shouldn't. But they should consider the instructor's side and give that instructor a fair chance to defend themselves if such a situation arises. A bad evaluation by 2 students should not be considered enough to create such a situation, especially in the presence of contrary opinions by a majority of other students.

Comments

[joycemocha.livejournal.com]

This sort of thing happens in K-12 education as well, sorry to say. Guess where these kiddos learned that technique? Sigh, so sorry to read this, and best wishes for you in this new school year. It was nice talking with you at the Kaffeeklatch at Worldcon.

[mtlawson.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately, you're correct. I have a sister-in-law who was on the receiving end of that as a high school teacher when she was going to give a poor grade to the kid of one of the big shots in her county. She was essentially told what grade to give, and she quit instead.

[mastadge.livejournal.com]

Crikey. You teach at SUNY Oneonta? I used to be a student at Hartwick.

Um . . . I'll read the rest of your post now and reply accordingly.

[agilebrit.livejournal.com]

That's monstrous. The inmates are running the asylum. God help us all.

Unfortunately, this isn't the first time I've seen something like this on my flist, and it was a completely different college subject. Apparently the little darlings expect you to hand them everything on a silver platter instead of having to actually work for it, and Heaven help you if you don't.

There's a reason that when Da Boy says "Help me" on his schoolwork, I ask him "Have you read the material? Read it again, your answers are in there" and make him HUNT IT DOWN instead of just giving him the answers. *shakes head*

[cat-mcdougall.livejournal.com]

"Have you read the material? Read it again, your answers are in there"

I thought I was the only parent that did that! Ooooh the arguments.

[cat-mcdougall.livejournal.com]

As a mother of a daughter who struggles in math - and a son who struggles period, but he has Downs Syndrome, and that's a completely separate area - I have to say I loathe this behaviour. This is the same attitude I saw among parents of my daughter's class, when their children received a poor grade. (We just switched school systems; I'm hoping it's better here.)

The blame was always placed on the teacher, or on the material. My daughter struggles in math, and we spend lots of time on it, in the evenings, whether she has homework or not, because she needs the extra work. I Google things to help me help her. And then, all of that work is completely undone, when she comes home and states flatly: "Well, Susie's Mom complained at the teacher and SHE got a better grade! All because the teacher didn't explain it, and stuff!" Completely undoes all the hard work my daughter has put in and makes her think (for now at least) that I'm just being mean and unfair. (I know I'm not, but still...)

Parents need to step up and stop being their kids' friends. We're parents first, buddies second. Not the other way around.

[Expletive deleted]!

[zornhau.livejournal.com]

Don't you guys have a trade union? Lawyers? Armed champions?

Re: [Expletive deleted]!

[mastadge.livejournal.com]

No. My cousin is a schoolteacher. She was teaching, I believe, a sixth-grade class some years back. Some of the bigger boys in the class literally strapped her into her chair with their belts. No one in the class did anything. The class got out, and she was stuck until she was discovered later by another teacher. She went to talk to the administration, who did nothing. She was told that it was her failure for not maintaining control of her classroom. The students who physically tied her to her chair? No punishment. No detention, suspension, stern talking-to, parent conferences. Nothing.

[clarkesworld.livejournal.com]

Having worked at both universities and PK-12, I can say that this isn't unique at any grade level. In fact, at my last school, my instructor and I put forward failing grades for two 9th grade students only to be told that "no one fails at XXXX" and the grades were changed to a B- by the Dean. Nevermind the fact that the students failed to turn in over half their assignments, routinely scored below 50 on tests and quizzes AND we had sent home three warning notices that were cc'd to the Dean. We even met with their parents and the Dean midway through the term. This was among the reasons I left.

At the school my sister works for, the long-time headmaster was recent fired after a trustee campaigned against her solely on the grounds that their child didn't get into their first choice school after graduating.

No matter what, your friend is better off having left that place. That their Dean wouldn't at least hear their side is telling of bad management.

I do have one problem with your argument though. You are making an assumption that the two students gave 0's and 1's. If they didn't, the other scores may have just been mediocre and positive making the situation very different. Your friend should have insisted on seeing all the evaluations and getting their hands on that data. I only mention this because I'm used to students being a bit more mercenary. They fully expected scores of 0 and 1 to be ignored as grade-based revenge, so they routinely used a mix of 1, 2, and 3 to give the appearance of honest answers.

[jpsorrow.livejournal.com]

I did say that I assumed the 2 students gave them 0s and 1s, which may not be true . . . but I'm fairly confident they did. The instructor saw the actual evaluations and my impression from them was they were all 0s and 1s, but I didn't ask for the particulars. I believe the instructor did get all of the data and saw all of the written evaluations in the end; the administration can't legally keep these from the instructors.

[theguindo]

My philosophy teacher commented on this during our unit on Confucism. Confucius outlines five fundamental relationships: one is Parent to Child and another one is Friend to Friend. Student/teacher relationships should be an extension of parent/child, where the teacher will do what is best for the student regardless of what the student wants. Unfortunately, they've turned into customer/client relationships which is an extension of friend/friend, and that's why faculty is being pressured to keep students happy regardless of what the students actually need.

There are lots of problems that have caused this attitude though. One is this philosophy of "the customer is always right." If you're paying for your education, you're a customer, right? Another is this apparent allergy Americans have to taking personal responsibility. Nobody wants to give in and say "Yeah, my bad" so they blame everyone else instead. If you get bad grades it is obviously the teacher's fault and not because you half-assed that 22 page essay they gave you 5 weeks to work on but you didn't start on until the night before.

It's sad, really, and I don't know that it's going to improve anytime soon with our culture being as it is.

[misunderstruck.livejournal.com]

I would have told them they had to decide whether they were taking the course or taking a vacation

Dead on. I sometimes wonder if there are students who think that colleges create summer courses merely as items of convenience for students who want to knock out a few credits in the hours they're not working on their tans or their summer jobs. I've had conversations with students (high school in my case) who were asking for exemptions from homework or extra time to study for tests because of extracurricular activities. I don't make allowances for them -- if they want to take part in sports, student government, or the drama club, then they need to learn the required time management skills in the process.

The administration did not ask the instructor to explain the situation that gave rise to the 2 evaluations.

That is bullshit, plain and simple. That, coupled with them ignoring the overwhelmingly positive evaluations from the other students and not giving the instructor an opportunity to present his side of the story makes it pretty clear the administrators were only interested in getting a specific number (the evaluation average) on paper.

Also, am I right in reading that there are only 5 students in the class? Whoa. Someone should beat the administrators over the head with the sample size bat.

Students in math--and in particular, students taking math at the level of an introductory course like this one--generally hate the subject before they even step into the classroom, and that hatred transfers to the instructor before THEY even step into the classroom

Yes, and many students are coming from high school experiences where they may have received excellent grades in math despite doing little challenging work, whether because they had lackadaisical teachers or they happened to be the brightest kids in a below average class. There are people who, when they find themselves suddenly receiving lower grades, will look not towards themselves and their work habits, but put the blame on external sources.

[rosinavs.livejournal.com]

Someone should beat the administrators over the head with the sample size bat.

That was exactly what I was thinking, but I would never have come up with such an awesome way to put it!

[(Anonymous)]

You left out the part about how students are catered to at the expense of their education (and at the expense of instructors) because universities and schools don't want to be sued - because they will be sued, if students (and their parents) don't get exactly what they feel they are entitled to, whether they have earned/deserve it or not.

Livia

[lagilman]

*is speechless with frustration but, sadly, not surprise*

And, worst of all, this hurts the kids who do work hard, who do take responsibility, and who do want to learn something more.

[mtlawson.livejournal.com]

The thing that sticks in my craw about this situation is that it demonstrates that the university needs the student's money (and potential donations after graduation) more than the university needs to educate a student. It also teaches the student that if you whine enough you get what you want.

Out of curiosity's sake, was the instructor adjunct faculty? I've been told by friends who are professors that the adjunct faculty are forced to operate under a different set of rules than the regular faculty.

[jjschwabach.livejournal.com]

Wow.
I could understand the higher-ups reacting that way had the student had a health issue or family emergency, but of course, had it been something like that, your colleague would have worked to accommodate the student. I never, as an undergrad or graduate student, missed a class for anything other than health reasons. It would never have crossed my mind to skip class, let alone two *weeks* of class, much less two weeks of a 6-8 week class, to go on vacation.

My junior year of college, I got very, very ill. I had been approved for an overload (probably because of my never missing a class) and they let me drop down to the normal number of credits a third of the way in with no penalty. Because it was health. But for vacation?

Um.
People go to college why?

[mtlawson.livejournal.com]

People go to college why?

I sure wish I knew.

I've been on interview panels for a couple of previous employers, and the thing that gets ignored the most these days is your college record. The other people on the interview panels had gotten wise to all of these administrative shenanigans, and they prefer to hire somebody who can demonstrate real ability. These days the trend is toward hiring co-ops or others who had time to establish a career outside of college.

As universities become more "insert money and get degree" institutions, they are devaluing themselves.

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

Sadly, this is what happens when education is starved of centralised funding and forced to depend on students and their parents for it. The tail wags the dog. The UK system is going this way, too: when I was still teaching we have one particular student who was not simply lazy and non-compliant, but actively unpleasant and bullying whom the institution would not let us fail. We let him back once, because the first year can be difficult for some students to adjust to and so on, but he was worse in his 2nd year. And we again were told to pass him. the only thing that saved us was that said student then managed to get himself in trouble with the police. Suddenly throwing him out was fine. I don't know what would have happened otherwise: nearly all of us had stated we would not accept him on our courses, but there had already been an instance of someone being ordered to teach a particular student (different case) despite their expressed desire not to. Universities don't see staff as people any more: we're furniture that provides resource for students. Your colleague has great integrity: best wishes to them in future.

[mariness.livejournal.com]

From back when I worked at a university business school:

1. We had a tremendous problem keeping on statistics teachers because of exactly what you are talking about. And a problem watching for grade inflation, since some of our adjuncts quickly realized that our hiring was based on student evaluations so we could be competitive during the university budget process (which was an entirely different and irritating can of worms, but I digress.)

2. Some of the students in our doctoral program taught at a certain very well known and quite large for-profit institution - and reported that that particular institution would actually change grades based on student complaints, without consulting with the professor.

[shanrina.livejournal.com]

This is appalling. My mother is a middle school French teacher, and something similar happened to her this last school year--a student decided that she absolutely hated my mother. She'd bitch about every assignment and test and even circulated a petition around the school trying to get my mother fired for incompetence. When my mother talked to the kid's guidance counselor about it, the counselor said the student claimed my mother had told her to do it. They're pretty sure she has some major Issues now, but here's the difference: the administration supported my mother. They did not make her change a thing. And this kid is also a middle schooler, so she's still got a lot of maturing left to do (or at least I hope so, anyway).

I graduated from college not too long ago (class of '07) and I have to say that I was stunned at the exceptions granted to some of my fellow students even from the most supposedly hardass professors out there, and even to me when my clinical depression was at its worst and I could barely make myself get out of bed. (I would have flunked me if I'd been the professor. Nobody did, which oddly enough made me even more upset because I was blatantly flouting the rules even if it was because I was ill.) I remember a friend of mine said she was taking a week off before spring break to go on a cruise with her family and her newly-adopted little brother, and the reason she presented when she asked to be excused from classes then was because "newly-adopted children need time to bond with their families" (which may be true, but why the hell were her parents okay with it?) even though she'd already pretty much moved out of the house.

I'm in complete agreement with you on this one.

[barbhendee.livejournal.com]

I taught college English for twelve years--in Idaho and Colorado. Thankfully, the department had a good departmental "chair" in every place I taught.

But early in my teaching career, I saw some of this crap you mention above going on, and my early warning signals became honed. The few times (and there were only a few) that I sensed a disturbance in the force that could culminate in students causing problems for me (simply because they didn't want to do any work), I started documenting specific details . . . just in case. In only two cases in twelve years, did I submit the documentation to my departmental chair before the end of the semester, but in both cases, I was REALLY glad I did.

[mardott.livejournal.com]

This kind of thing is why I quit teaching high school. This - and fear for my life. It's getting worse all the time - at all grade levels, students are not expected to be responsible for their own education and behavior. But we will NEVER have a quality education system unless that happens.

I started college at the old age of 33, with a marriage behind me and five little kids to support. Going at that age is a real eye-opener. The level of rudeness and entitlement among the students was unbelievable to see.

I'm hoping karma gets those students. And gets your friend an awesome job somewhere else.

But how do we get our education system turned around? When an administration handles a situation the way you describe, I worry that we'll never be able to change things. That we've already lost the battle.
It would have been so easy for the administration to handle it the way you suggest. But like so much else in this country, we only take the short-sighted view. The administrator is only going to do what's needed to bring the scores up, because he doesn't want to lose his job. He's worried about losing his job because HIS boss wants instant success and no trouble, and on up the ladder. So in the end, there's no one to insist on accountability.

I don't want a return to the days of a switch next to the teacher's desk and a dunce cap in the corner. But education is not something that's DONE to someone. It doesn't just happen. A teacher is necessary, but a student has to do the work of obtaining the education.

[comradecharlie.livejournal.com]

I think I can boil it down to one word: Capitalism.

But then, I'm a crazy commie socialist from a country where education and educational institutions don't exist to make profit, but rather to educate. *shrug*

[cathshaffer.livejournal.com]

This is not the first such story I heard. Universities everywhere are dealing with poor-performing, highly entitled brats. I have one friend who is a physics professor at a very respected university who regularly has to teach his students basic arithmetic. I have other friends who sacrificed and suffered for an academic career only to become glorified babysitters. I have a friend who is a professor who regularly gets calls from her students' PARENTS regarding "misunderstandings" with grades. It's completely insane.

By the way, there is nothing wrong in my opinion with allowing students to work around a vacation, especially in a summer session. You never know what is going on in someone's life. This may be a really important family event that can't be rescheduled. Besides, we all know that as we get older it gets harder and harder to get away. The important thing is can they do the work. I would warn them that it is harder than they think to keep up with coursework while on vacation and then shrug and hand them a stack of reading. The unfair part is that the university didn't at least give the professor a chance to explain why the students were so disgruntled.

[jimhines.livejournal.com]

When I was teaching freshman English at EMU, our supervisors explicitly told us not to worry about grammar and punctuation, and to teach ideas. Trouble was, about half the students in any given class couldn't write a sentence. A freaking sentence!

But much as in Joshua's situation, there was no interest in hearing the instructors' side of things. In fact, when we strayed from the curriculum and tried to actually give the kids the skills to teach-- Well, let's just say it was only last month that my supervisor killed a $500 speaking engagement for me at EMU.

It's absolutely insane. I hope Joshua's friend is able to find a better position elsewhere.

[caroleannmoleti.livejournal.com]

I'd like to say that my experience teaching has been different, but no. I filled in as an adjunct a few years back when a nursing instructor became ill. That required me preparing an entire course outline and syllabus, and the lectures. They gave me required reading lists and a pool of test questions, an office which I had to sit in for three hours a week to see students who needed help/had questions, etc. and promised to pay my salary to my employer (an affilliated hospital) since I was being released from seeing patients to teach the course and do office hours.

These were senior students and many of them didn't know enough medical terminology to get through an entire lecture without stopping me to define basic terms a beginning student should know. I had to give a "map" of the exams out, telling them how many questions on what topics would be on the test. I emphasized in each lecture "This is really important, please make sure you know this." And half the class failed the tests each time. Seniors, who would be graduating and taking State Boards that year. No one came to see me before the tests, but I had loads crying on my desk after each one. If they had been to lectures and studied, they would have passed. I didn't use tricky questions.

I only reported raw scores, and the school took care of the grading and curved everything, I'm sure, to maintain their accredidation. But as far as I was concerned 45 out of 90 students were unqualified for the professional licensing exams. Students claimed I didn't know how to teach, and they wanted their old instructor back. I was very happy I only agreed to fill in for one semester. Then, to top it off, it took two years and a lawyer to get them to pay my employer.

[camille-is-here.livejournal.com]

Yeah. When I taught at Temple I had death threats for giving a bad grade. It is sort of amazing how colleges have competed for kids' dimes over the past couple decades--over half the teaching staff is now part time or otherwise temporary by design, but they keep building bigger gyms and fancier dorms.

Education has become just another profit center and nobody seems to think the education part is what they are paying for. I had some kids who really wanted to learn, but a hell of a lot of them came in thinking they knew all they ever needed and were just here for the beer and the paper at the end.

[ellen-denham.livejournal.com]

While fortunately I haven't encountered this situation myself, I have certainly heard about it from faculty members at other institutions. Fortunately, at the college where I teach, the rest of the department is pretty supportive. I've had the occasional student who has refused to work at all and has given me terrible evaluations, but these students are pretty unpleasant across the board so other faculty members can see it's not just me.

It's really unfortunate to see this sort of thing go on. It doesn't do anybody any favors.

[sylvia-rachel.livejournal.com]

So, let me get this straight: two bad evals out of five, and it doesn't occur to the dept chair that perhaps this sample size is underpowered to detect ... um ... anything? OMFG.

Sadly, as someone else said upthread, I am appalled by this story but not at all surprised. I spent some time earlier this year lurking on the never-ending "favourite student e-mails" thread over on the Chronicle of Higher Ed forums, as well as knowing a large number of high school teachers, college instructors, and university professors, so I am more than familiar with the unbelievable things that students routinely demand these days. It makes me wonder whether things have really changed so much in the years since I was an undergraduate (I got my BA in 1996), or whether I just didn't realize all the crap my fellow students were trying to get away with, or whether the change isn't in the students but in administrative attitudes.

I think it's probably worse in the US, where tuitions paid directly by students and/or their parents are often higher and "brand name" recognition is more of a factor, but it's definitely a problem in Canada too. Even in my day (she said, sounding ever so slightly like Grampa Simpson), there were Ed students in my French Lit classes who, having chosen a course purely for scheduling reasons, turned up for only half the class meetings, didn't do the readings, and then complained when they got lousy marks on tests or assignments or seminars "because I need a [whatever] average to stay in the BEd program!" Um ... miss the point of education much, y'all?

[arantzain.livejournal.com]

One thing I would observe is that K-12 education at present rewards and praises students for raw intelligence--being able to get by having read the material once is considered proof you're "smart." I have never yet heard a student praised for being dependable, reliable, or for hard work that allowed them to excel despite difficulties. This attitude is endemic among parents and also among students.

Students then show up to college with the expectation that the material should be immediately comprehensible because they are "smart" and that's all success needs. When students do poorly, they feel it reflects on their intelligence or their value as a person rather than on their preparation, and they attack the system for "devaluing" them--leading to bullsh*t like what your colleague experienced.

I've been one of these students, though I've chosen not to evaluate professors instead of condemn them; but I know this was my attitude and my preparations, pre-college, and that it cost me horrendously and placed (I think) an unfair burden on my professors.

[libwitch.livejournal.com]

Uh, the union would have a lot to say about this, regardless if the instructor is an adjunct, tenure track, etc. A LOT. And would fight quite hard for the professor.

There are many things wrong with the situation - the fact that the instructor was never asked to explain their side of it; the fact that a minority of the evaulations were used to determine fate of said instructor; the idea that the administrators were allowed to essentially (de facto) determine grades of students in the professors future courses.

Yeah NO. Students do not control the class.


I applaud this instructor for their difficult and morally right decision. I would also hope they would send in their story to the UUP newsletter so it can be told as a warning to other on this, er, the anon campus.

I would also hope that this instructor, going forward, would spell out a attendance policy in future syllabi - especially if the school does not have one stated (often when they do not, the professor reserves the right to make their own); as well as a make up one. When I taught, I would not only do this, but also place a statement in that stated "According to the Student Handbook, the syllabi serves as a contract between students and the instructor, explain not only the rules and expectations of the class, but also what we can expect of each other. By continuing your enrollment in this class, you are agreeing that you read and understood this syllabi, and agree to the expectations within."

It was upheld, by the way.