From time to time, I have the opportunity to see education from a prospective of a student, not a teacher.
Over the years, I have taken many
classes at the local community college, during preparation for teaching
credentials; refresher math classes, prerequisite, or classes for enrichment and fun.
Sitting in these classes is not much
different from being in high school. Most of the students are barely over 18,
just graduated, and are not much more eager to learn then when they were few
years younger. College professors are struggling to get them interested,
alternatively promising, on one side, and threatening, on the other. Students
are being students, trying to get away with doing as little as possible…
I have watched different professors
dealing with students’ attitude in different ways. There were teachers who proposed
endless ways to get an extra credit, offering extra homework, extra tests, extra projects… I saw teachers declaring that they will drop the lowest tests’ score. Other teachers changed the rules as we progressed into the semester, and as
they realized, I guess, how poorly their students are doing. I don’t know if
college professors have to show some reasonable students’ passing rate,
if their reputation is on the line with the college authorities, or with students using web sites like ‘grade my professor’. Whatever the reason is, demands
are much more flexible than, in my mind. should be.
One main problem that constantly
spoils the K-12 education system, and not present in college, is unruly
behavior... What a relief! If you want to be here, you are welcome, if not -
just hit the road… It is not to say that college professors don’t have to shush
students from time to time, reminding them why they are there, but the everyday
struggle of a school teacher to get students’ attention, in the best case, or stop
purposely disruptive behavior (with varying levels of worse…), is just not present. Students who don’t want to learn don’t come, and if signed on to the class it is up
to the professor to retain or dismiss them.
Yet, what surprises me most as a
college-student, who has a prospective of a teacher, is how much college professors are
bending their rules to accommodate students' bad habits, brought from
high school, and how they enforce them by being so careful
not to enrage their learners.
A typical situation that makes me
lough, yet angered me as a symbol of the education system’s failure, is highlighted by encounter I had with a fellow students. Although the teacher had
stressed time and time again not using a pen, a student came to
class without a pencil. I offered him one, he thanked me and returned it
at the end of the class. On the following meeting he had no pencil again and I
offered him my extra, that he returned at the end of the class. On the
third time, when he still had no pencil I gave him mine again and said,
half-jokingly, that he might as well keep it. He didn’t attempt to return it
this time, and for the next several classes he seemed to be well stocked,
although I realized that he was not using my pencil anymore… So guess what
happened on Finals day? Of course, he came to the final test without a pencil. What did
I do? Offered him yet another pencil… And at the end of the exam? He left, not
returning it, not thanking me; he just left...
Now, here I am, a student who happened
to be also a teacher, guilty of the very same wrongdoing that I am so
critic of… I am just another enabler who helps students neglect their simple, basic,
responsibilities…
