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Critical Thinking Gone Awry
I can’t help but shake my head in disgust at the attitudes of some teachers. Here’s a wonderful example: in response to my last post, Sven wrote,
I dunno…some of this IS pretty bitchy. If I may offer a couple of cliches by which I try to live in dealing with students: pick your battles, and don’t sweat the small stuff. Really, not bringing one’s own stapler to class (thus making the poor beleaguered professor do some stapling–the horror!) becomes 25% of the exam grade? If I were one of your students, I’d be pretty pissed off about that too.
Personally, I always accept late assignments without penalty (remarkably, this policy is very seldom abused). My assignments are not busywork, and the idea is to do the work and thereby learn something; I don’t see how the learning process is encouraged by iron-fisted enforcement of a completely arbitrary deadline. 90 minutes late? Come on–who cares?
Let’s just take a moment to review this writer’s points:
- Pick my battles
Are you kidding me? What planet are you from? When did it become okay for students to “battle” their teachers?
Shame on you—for declaring the classroom a battleground or allowing it to be.
- Don’t sweat the small stuff
News flash: everything about college is small stuff—unless an armed gunman takes people out, and even then, unless you are personally involved, it remains small stuff—the rest of the world goes on as if nothing happened. In fact, most of what takes place in one’s life is small stuff. That doesn’t change the fact that each of us is obligated to deal with a whole lot of small stuff on a daily basis: for the student, the small stuff includes following the rules; for the teacher, it includes making them. Being successful with the small stuff is what makes life great because the small stuff is what life is all about.
Shame on you for acting as if anything that goes on in your classroom is big and for failing to educate your students about the importance—the joy—of small stuff.
- Thus making the poor beleaguered professor do some stapling
As opposed to the poor, beleaguered student? Good point.
Shame on you—for not recognizing the time of a teacher is supposed to be used for teaching—not stapling.
- If I were one of your students, I’d be pretty pissed off about that too.
And from what I read here, you’d misdirect your anger just as my students do. You should be pissed off, but not at me—at yourself for failing to following instructions.
Shame on you—for failing to educate your students: you are obviously under the misguided notion that the real world protects, coddles, and excuses sub-par behavior and work and attitudes.
Oh, wait, I guess in many ways it does.
Shame on you—for promoting this downward spiral.
5. Personally, I always accept late assignments without penalty (remarkably, this policy is very seldom abused).
If this is true, you are lucky. Or don’t teach general education courses. Or have been teaching for five minutes. Or are lying.
Shame on you—for setting standards and failing to follow through thereby slapping the faces of the responsible students who budgeted their time, prioritized their days, and had respect for your words. And another shame on you—for once again failing to educate your students.
- My assignments are not busywork.
Yes they are. Nothing one does in college isn’t. I haven’t used a single assignment from my college life in the classroom or in my real life. Have you? Doing the work, and budgeting the time, and following the guidelines are what makes each assignment worthwhile. That is all part of real learning. It is the struggle to do it—to be in that moment—to overcome the procrastination, the lack of understanding, the desire to do something else that makes completing the assignment feel good.
Shame on you—for thinking your assignments will change students’ lives and likely passing that lie on, and for robbing your students of true, personal success.
- 90 minutes late? Come on–who cares?
Gee, Sven, I dunno, but I dare you to arrive 90 minutes late to each of your classes for a week and see if anyone cares.
Shame on you—for insulting the students who worked hard to be on time and for failing again to educate your students by implying that being timely isn’t important.
July 30th, 2007 at 2:42 pm
You are the Pissed Off Professor, so own it. Wear it proudly like a badge. Don’t hide behind weak arguments like “you’re teaching your students to be timely” or “educating them on how to follow instructions.” Assert yourself as the dictator that you are, and raise that iron fist high. Your classroom is your regime and any student who don’t recognize that, who dares to question your authority and your methods, can get out! There’s the door, don’t let it hit you on your stapler-less butt on your way out. You know, I shared your “I Am Such a Bitch,” blog post with my colleagues, ready to raise a glass high to your excellence and superior teaching skills, and do you know what they did? They scoffed! They questioned the validity of your 25% markdown on stapler-less students. Can you believe that? The simplemindedness. But don’t worry, I took a page from your book and I scolded them. I put my finger in their faces and I said “Shame on you! Shame, shame, shame on you.” So stand tall and proud and hand out all that busywork that college is all about. You, “haven’t used a single assignment from [your] college life in the classroom or in [your] real life,” and why should you students be any different? You’re the in charge, and always right, and anyone who has a problem with that should be ashamed.
July 30th, 2007 at 7:58 pm
Celia, shame on you. Really, “any student who don’t recognize that …”? Darn, Celia, you must have missed an important lesson somewhere during your college education. Maybe you were 90 minutes late to that class? Okay, I know, you had other, more important things to do than show up on time. Oh, sorry, NOW I get it … typographical error! Ah, well, close enough is good enough.
Regarding the scoffing of your colleagues, what else would one expect? The old saying, “You are known by the company you keep” applies here. You and your colleagues are simply lazy teachers, taking the easy way out, and lowering the standards at every difficult situation you encounter. Like school yard misfits, you stick to one another like glue. It takes guts to stand up for what’s right. It is much easier to condone student laziness than to stand against it.
Three simple arguments supporting Shawn’s position:
ONE: Please reread your comments and those of Sven. Your words tell much about your poor work ethic, the low expectations you set for your students, and the resulting decay in educational standards which you and your colleagues seem to accept and even, encourage.
TWO: I just heard the sad news about the death of former San Francisco 49er’s head football coach, Bill Walsh. So far all, or most, of the eulogies I have heard and read, mention what a great and sucessful teacher Bill Walsh was, and that he was a tough task master, one who respected standards, demanded attention to details, and that he cared enough to have high expectations for those he taught. Which leads us to my third point.
THREE: A teacher takes people where they want to go. A great teacher, a leader, takes people not where they want to go but where they should go.
July 31st, 2007 at 5:57 am
Cheers to you Bonehead for finding my grammatical error! If I was your student I hope you’d fail me for that and protect those educational standards you defend. Because it is standards, procedures, and rules that are important. And only the laziest of teachers focus on the bigger picture. I stand by you in standing up for what is right. I am united with you and Shawn. Oh, question though, are you a “professor” as well or do you just play one in the blogosphere, like Shawn.
July 31st, 2007 at 11:10 am
Celia,
You might at least do all of us the courtesy of being remotely accurate: I am not hiding behind anything.
I state who I am, where I teach, and what my background is. You need to take a deep breath, plan, draft, and revise your speeches, and the spitting in anger, well, that’s just gooing up my screen.
Here’s another thought for you to ponder—if you dare:
I am obviously in the minority as a teacher, but my way used to be the standard. (Well, not exactly: when I was a student, no one had to be told to come prepared, to staple work, to bring books, to turn off cell phones, to arrive on time, etc. These things were understood. But, I digress.)
Given I am the minority in terms of teaching methodology, why is it [fewer] than 35 percent of students at ‘four-year colleges’ are able to complete their bachelor’s degree in [. . .] programs designed to take 4 years”?
Given I am the minority in terms of teaching methodology, why do 3/4 of the students entering college read and write at the 6th-8th grade level?
I guess we are just getting dumber, eh? It couldn’t possibly be we have decided that less-than is good enough, right?
As for you and your like-minded, cookie-cutter, (and thereby brilliant) colleagues, I wonder, have any of you heard of a piece called “No One”? (You’d do well to read it. Carefully.)
While I certainly don’t claim to be in a situation parallel to its author, I am screaming out in agony over a situation as equally important and ignored.
While you and yours cower in corners taking the easy road, I am going to rail against the pathetic downward slide that educators are allowing their students to adopt.
Shame on YOU.
P.S.
Whatever Bonehead’s education/profession, at least he/she can think logically. Thus far, everything you’ve written has lacked substance: do you have any real thoughts of your own? Can you make a point clearly? The sarcasm is wonderful, but it speaks volumes of your lacking any actual analysis regarding the issue at hand.
July 31st, 2007 at 11:56 am
My sarcasm is wonderful? Flattery will get you everywhere. But you misunderstand. I’m on the Bonehead and Shawn team. Go team Go! I’m with you, I think your “extremely unapproachable and scary” teaching style (to quote one of your students from ratemyadjuncts… oh wait… professors.com) is definitely the solution to raising standards. And while I do have a certain fondness for corner cowering and long walks on the easy road, in this instance I’m with you, ready to fight the good fight.
July 31st, 2007 at 2:52 pm
Celia,
It’s refreshing to know you visit such admirable sites. I think it is absolutely helpful for students to choose classes based on the ease of instruction, number of tests/exams/papers/quizzes given, and how many hotties a teacher has earned.
Of course, I am told there are some awfully positive comments about me there, too; however, I’m sure those aren’t relevant to you.
After all, you have again proven to all of us you have absolutely nothing original in your brain: you merely toss around the words and ideas of others.
I’m not sure what they call that where you are, but around here, it’s called
stupidityplagiarism.P.S.
(You can find the “definition” of plagiarism at Wikipedia.com, another of your favorites, I’m sure.)
July 31st, 2007 at 9:17 pm
Plagiarism? I’m confused? What am I lifting from others? Or do you get these comments often? That you sound like a terrible teacher and/or a control freak that likes to take it out on her students?
July 31st, 2007 at 10:47 pm
p.s. Someone lied to you. There aren’t any positive comments about you at ratemyprofessors.com
July 31st, 2007 at 4:08 pm
Wow! I am shocked at some of these responses. It is 2007, don’t students know how to follow instructions yet? Celia’s sarcasm is amusing, but she misses the real point. Didn’t the great minds of history learn from following the rules? Didn’t Plato force Aristotle to bring a stapler with him when it came time for him to display his worth? And if he hadn’t brought a stapler with him that day, we may never have heard of Aristotle, or read any of his philosophy. Can’t Celia see how important the stapler, and subsequently, the rules are? Content isn’t important.
Oh, and for the record. There actually isn’t anything nice about you on the rate my professor site. Seeing as you like to be so upfront about everything, just thought we should make that clear. Here is the URL: http://ratemyprofessors.com/ShowRatings.jsp?tid=87369t Just in case you missed it. And before you discredit the whole site, you might want to see that there are actually some very nice things about the other instructors in your department. Here is that URL, so you don’t get confused: http://ratemyprofessors.com/SelectTeacher.jsp?the_dept=All&sid=1303&orderby=TDept&letter=
August 2nd, 2007 at 12:04 pm
Dear Miss[ed your] Education:
Plato: 427-327 B.C.
Aristotle: 384-322 B.C.
Invention of Stapler: patented 1866
Also, you’ve left out Socrates (469-399 B.C.), the man who taught them both—the man who is responsible (directly or indirectly) for the education of the two men you mention.
Perhaps you also missed the days in your education during which the rift between Plato and Aristotle was discussed?
Obviously, you have spent no time with any of the works or words of these three philosophers: each of them would condemn students
(as I have) for laziness, lack of preparedness, and an inability to treasure learning and thinking.
How’s life in The Cave?
August 2nd, 2007 at 4:47 pm
The ideals expressed by condemning “an inability to treasure learning and thinking” seem profoundly incompatible with an idea that “life is about following the rules”. Is nothing you teach more important than simply learning how to take orders? Because if so, it is perhaps worth note that while one pays for college, the army pays its trainees.
And I have used things I learned in college, even beyond the standard “useful” classes like computer science and foreign languages. I’ve found history, statistics, economics, and even psychology to be useful outside of the classroom. The assignments are useful and meaningful because they teach something, and if you believe otherwise you should find another profession.
August 3rd, 2007 at 11:55 am
Lisa,
First of all, if you had actually taken the time to read a few more of my posts, you would have saved yourself the ignorant notion that I am about teaching nothing other “than simply learning how to take orders.”
The issues of which I speak here, when covered on my syllabus, fall under the heading of “Things I Wish I Didn’t Have to Say.” Each of these items has been added after several students have forced its inclusion into the course contract.
One relevant example: my syllabus used to list a stapler as a required material, but after several students showed up with empty staplers, proudly pointing out I hadn’t included staples on the list, I made an adjustment. (And before you want to point to this act as some kind of response to an unreasonable request on my part, I ask you, did YOU have to be told to staple your work? How in the world do you imagine I had to begin putting it in my syllabus to begin with?)
Second, I never said I hadn’t found things from my education “useful”; however, there is a vast difference between “used” and “useful.” (I have never used any assignment from college out here in the real world.)
Like you, I have found much from my college education useful, but that wasn’t the issue brought up by Sven who somehow decided what I assign my students is busywork. My point was that any educator who is honest must admit that most of what is done in college is busywork. (Most of what one does in life is busywork.)
“The assignments are useful and meaningful because they teach something, and if you believe otherwise you should find another profession.” Oh come on! How overblown is your ego? (Or how confused by what you do are you?)
I have no idea what you teach, but I am a composition instructor: I teach students to write essays. I teach students how to craft papers with clearly stated thesis sentences, body paragraphs that begin with relevant topic sentences, and an overall work that is unified, developed, and relevant to the prompt. We cover a variety of rhetorical modes of writing, and we cover how best to read critically. At certain levels, a research paper is even required.
When was the last time someone’s job or life or well-being depended on your ability to read something and then respond in the form of a cause-and-effect essay?
Most of college and certainly all General Education courses are about jumping though hoops (in a somewhat controlled environment) to better prepare students for the hoops the real world has in store for them. A byproduct of GE courses is providing a testing ground for students who intend to go on to advanced degrees in areas of particular interest—too often money-driven—to jump through more specialized hoops.
“Good” students get this, and never have I had an “A” or “B” student come to class without the required materials—it is always the whiners, complainers, and downright lazy ones who argue every detail with their typical air of entitlement who ruin it for the rest of us.
Those of us who were good students learned the only real things college has to offer: how to take pride in what we do, and how to accomplish what we are tasked to do in the time allotted and within the required parameters. It wasn’t necessarily that we learned something because we could suddenly figure out the correct answer to how many miles had been traveled by trains leaving from different locations and traveling different speeds, it was that we discovered our ability to accomplish a new task. It was a self-serving feeling of accomplishment.
It is you who needs to find another profession if you think what you have to offer is so relevant and engaging that most of your students would be there if they didn’t have to be.
Good students understand that while learning to write a better essay might not make them better doctors (or teachers or parents or truck drivers), it’s one of the hoops they need to jump through, and as long as they have to make the leap, they might as well try to apply themselves and find ways to enjoy the work.
They even understand that while not directly relevant, some of what they are doing is good practice for the times in their lives when what they want to do and what they have to do collide.
August 7th, 2007 at 9:07 pm
Ha! I could argue with you for days about what misconceptions you have about MY education. What I do know is that you are missing the big picture. I will never be able to drill that into you in a comment section on your blog, so I am done trying. What I can say, based on everything you have written, is that I feel bad for your students. They have to suffer at the hands of an overzealous detail freak, simple because their professor had a crappy childhood. Sounds like someone has Mommy issues. Maybe you should work on that instead of taking it out on your students…just a thought.
August 11th, 2007 at 2:16 pm
Celia,
If you arrived late to one of my classes (unexcused), you would get ONE warning not two, or three. The next time (unexcused), I’d kick your lazy butt out of my class and spend my time with others more deserving. And that goes for your colleagues as well.
August 17th, 2007 at 8:43 pm
Thank you for that lengthy and thought-out response. Now that I’m not having a knee-jerk reaction to “25% off for no staples”, it becomes clear that the situation I was picturing was both unusual and unfair to you. I’m not a professor, and I’ve had the luck to spend my classroom time with mostly responsible and motivated students; perhaps that helps make my error more understandable. I’ll try to spend more time thinking before I speak next time; thanks for writing and sharing such an interesting blog.
August 4th, 2008 at 2:19 pm
I heard teachers argue over students bringing paper and pencil to class. Some say it’s the teachers responsibility to provide the resources, but at a set budget and dealing with college students who should be above elementary standards they are responsible for their work and materials. As my English teacher used to say “You can remember your cell phones don’t BS me about forgetting your pencils, get out and come back when you ready to learn.”
I will always remember him, and carry a pencil.
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