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There is a breed of very narcissistic person in our culture that will always find a way to blame their inadequacies and their mistakes on those around them. In
by zwkrt 5y ago
There is a breed of very narcissistic person in our culture that will always find a way to blame their inadequacies and their mistakes on those around them. In high school, if you are a teacher you have quite a lot of authority in the classroom and so even if your student is oriented in this way, they will just 'not like that teacher'. Helicopter and apologist parents are increasingly an issue but they aren't directly in the classroom.
In college however, students are grappling with their own burgeoning adulthood. They realize a TA is just another student with a few years on them. While the professor might be a bit out of reach, for a narcissistic person, it is easy to justify to themselves that they are actually above the TA in status/rank/morality/righteousness/sociability. Subsequently they can beat down the TA in the way that you mentioned. "All my problems are the result of your failures to address them". "I would have done better but the TA didn't like me." "Oh I hated that class the TA was a total nerd." "No one ever told me I had to do the assignments, I didn't realize I would be tested on this."
It doesn't help that people who choose to become a TA are often a 'helpful' kind of person, the exact kind of person that tends to be a little bit susceptible to these kinds of criticisms, even if they are untrue. The only way to move forward as a TA (and as a person) in this environment is to harden yourself in the ways that the article and many other commenters mention. That's my 2c anyhow.
- civilized 5y agoI'm sure it's theoretically possible to do poorly in a class because the teacher didn't like you, but statistically, it's got to be one of the most powerful red flags on a human. Steer clear.
- webmobdev 5y agoI didn't get you; steer clear of who - the teacher or the student?
- titanomachy 5y agoprobably steer clear of the student who claims they failed because the teacher didn't like them
- wisty 5y agoThere could be teachers who are fanatics about some political issue, and if you even hint you might disagree with them they'll try to lash out. I also recall some university level class (I didn't take it but a friend did) where religion was a topic and the professor intentionally set very loaded questions in online tutorials. While it's fair to ask people to question their own assumptions, it often seems the people most keen on this are ones who would become very irate if their own assumptions got questioned. Perhaps that why some groups of people tend to gravitate to STEM, where teacher bias is less likely to have an impact.
- analog31 5y agoAh, the student didn't know one of the secret college hacks: Teachers with an ideological axe to grind are almost always the easiest graders, because they can be manipulated by dog whistles, and need to be liked. I got my best grades in the obligatory religion classes.
- caddemon 5y agoMany, many TAs are only doing it because it is required for their PhD program (either explicitly or in order to receive funding). Some of them still take the teaching duty seriously, but not all. Having a bad TA is not a good excuse for failing a class I agree, but in my experience most TAs are not looking at their feedback because they're really only in it for the research. And a decent portion of them would deserve the negative feedback.
- avs733 5y ago> There is a breed of very narcissistic person in our culture that will always find a way to blame their inadequacies and their mistakes on those around them. There is a flip side...a lot of students are reaching college now without the experience of the decision or blame being on them. College is viewed as so important that it cannot be left to these children who will screw it up. Grades are inflated, kids are told to do more activities but with less depth...everyone is trying to game every metric. It is a functionally nihilistic world view that becomes embedded in students minds in a way that totally lacks agency. They feel that if they fail its because the teacher failed them...because in their priors the teacher fixed it, because failing and the consequences were not an option - especially for the 'gifted' students. It isn't a personality, it's a lived experience. Its confusing to the students just as much as to me because they don't understand what has happened or how their parents/teachers/leaders/society have failed them.