Silly Students

So, since I should be grading papers instead of writing this, I thought I'd use my students as fodder for today's post. Here are the top three things my students have done recently that have irritated me:

3. A guy came to me at the beginning of class and said, "I have to leave for a meeting in 20 minutes. Is that ok?" Here's what I wanted to tell him: "Well, you can see the attendance policy. You get to miss 2 classes without consequences. After that, it starts to count against you. And why are you scheduling things during class and then telling me about it? Do you really want to make it clear to your instructor that you put her class at the bottom of your priority list? So, no. It's not ok that you leave, but if you want to, go for it. You're an adult, and you're in college. I certainly won't stop you."

2. On Thursday, a student handed in his most recent assignment, which was to write a letter to the editor of a publication of his choice. One of the assignment requirements is that he try to persuade his reader that his point of view was right. That's right. Being persuasive was a key part of the assignment. So, this student hands in his letter and says, "Just so you know, I wrote this letter to be more informational than persuasive." How am I supposed to respond to that? This guy tells me that he just ignored one of the assignment requirements, and I'm supposed to take his letter and say, "Oh, thank you! I'm so glad that you decided, on your own, that the assignment wasn't what you wanted to do. It's great to see that sort of initiative. This will serve you really well in the real world, when you decide to change the specifications on a bridge that you're building, or a house that you're designing, because you decided you didn't like the original plan." Needless to say, I had an inappropriate amount of fun grading that letter :)

and the number 1. most irritating thing one of my students did this past week....

My students are writing blogs, which for the most part is working out great. This past week, one of my students writes that he doesn't think that professors should share their political/religious/social/etc. opinions in class, because students deserve to get an unbiased education. This student isn't alone in thinking this. There was a movement at the university a few years ago where students didn't want professors talking politics in the classroom, because if the students didn't agree with the professor, they were worried it would affect their grades. What bullshit. First of all, it pisses me off that just because I'm the instructor, students think I'm not supposed to have opinions. Everyone has opinions. How can I lead a meaningful class discussion if I'm not allowed to use my thoughts and opinions on a subject as a basis for that discussion?

But even more problematic to me is the underlying assumption behind this sort of statement, the assumption that if a professor doesn't clearly express his/her opinions, that means that the material is being presented in an unbiased way. Honestly, I would rather have a professor who was completely opposite of me politically, but in an open way, so that it was easier to identify the bias. I think it's even more insidious of a professor to hide their political or religious bias and present materials as neutral, even when they're not.

And finally, this suggests a laziness on the part of students I'm teaching, an unwillingness or inability to think for themselves and examine issues critically. And to me, that's sort of scary. The sort of people who don't want their own views challenged are the people who are most defensive when it comes to those views, and most unwilling to think openly about other possibilities. The fact that this attitude toward professors expressing their own opinions seems to be becoming more and more common suggests that this closed-mindedness is spreading, which is something I see as detrimental to our society as a whole.

Anyways, hopefully tomorrow I'll be done with grading, and I can post about something more fun and exciting :)