Wise Words

While reading Eric Zorn's blog today, I cam across a link a page of a site run by Steven Dutch, Natural and Applied Sciences professor at University of Wisconsin-Green Bay. He calls it the Top 10 No Sympathy Lines aimed at students' complaints/excuses regarding poor grades.

While reading the page and nodding my head (as if to say "Right on, Professor Dutch!") I started to think maybe he wrote this piece for people like me. But then I realized I didn't complain that often about poor grades. If I got poor grades, it's pretty much because I earned them based on a lack of effort. I found that when I tried my hardest, throughout the semester, I did just fine. (I also did just fine every time I signed up for a class taught by Chuck Aukema, but that's just good strategy.)

Problem is, trying hard got in the way of having fun, or at least committing myself to other things I thought also might benefit me in the long run, such as editing the newspaper or holding down a fraternity office (sometimes both at once, which fried my nerves but helped me nail down a Clark Merit Scholarship).

Anyhow, I urge anyone who's ever been near a college to read the whole list, and I wouldn't be surprised to see professors everywhere passing this sheet out on Day One, if they aren't already doing so.

The statements/questions rebuked/rebuffed are:
■ This Course Covered Too Much Material...
■ The Expected Grade Just for Coming to Class is a B
■ I Disagreed With the Professor's Stand on ----
■ Some Topics in Class Weren't on the Exams
■ Do You Give Out a Study Guide?
■ I Studied for Hours
■ I Know The Material - I Just Don't Do Well on Exams
■ I Don't Have Time For All This
■ But you don't understand. I have a job.
■ Students Are Customers
■ Do I Need to Know This?
■ There Was Too Much Memorization
■ This Course Wasn't Relevant
■ Exams Don't Reflect Real Life
■ I Paid Good Money for This Course and I Deserve a Good Grade
■ All I Want is the Diploma

It's to the last statement he delivers this eloquent response:

Call me elitist, but there are a lot more people who want good jobs than there are good jobs to go around. I think society has a perfect right to reserve those positions for people who demonstrate a commitment to excellence.

For people who want to get by on the minimum, there's a reward already established. It's called the minimum wage.

Please, please read the whole thing here, then pass it on. And if you have kids, don't let them grow up to be the type of people that think this guy is way off base. Somewhere along the line, American parents as a culture seem to have lost faith in their educators and educational systems, preferring always to see their child as blameless when achievement wanes or discipline is an issue.

I'm all for giving each situation a fair analysis, but as a general rule, teachers ought to be given the benefit of the doubt. I've had at least one teacher, perhaps two or three (if you add college) that truly deserved to have their tactics analyzed and corrected. But the rest of the time, if I got bad grades or found myself in a disciplinary issue, it was for good reason.

I'm done now. Thank you.