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> Let’s all do whatever the student believe At this point, I'll trust student sentiment over a professor's insistence any day of the week. Professors throw ou

> Let’s all do whatever the student believe At this point, I'll trust student sentiment over a professor's insistence any day of the week. Professors throw out the word "office hours" like it's self-explanatory. It's not. And unless you're a certain type of person, you just won't know or learn how a professor's office hours could help you. It's not immediately apparent to me (or particularly first generation college students) how swinging by a professor's office hours for 10 minutes on an alternating Thursday is going to help me understand 5-dimensional integrals. If you're students don't make use of your office hours (and need to), it's a failing on the professor, not the students' culture.

goosedragons 4y ago
I mean if you don't know what it means you could ask? Or even google? Simply googling "office hours college" is enough to get: "Office hours are times when you can meet with your professors and teaching assistants to discuss the material being presented in class or other."
- musingsole 4y ago
  That's frankly not enough. That's plenty for a student who is on the cusp of slipping behind -- who's been trained on the culture of college since grade school. And it's no help at all to the student who is mostly bewildered by the constant swarm of disjoint activity on a college campus. 4x so for a first generation student. These students understand math and exams. The cultural stuff in the middle mostly goes over their heads.
michaericalribo 4y ago
This is a failure to understand responsibility here. The professor is not responsible for holding your hand and explain every little term—especially terms like “office hours”, which are bog standard at literally every university. This isn’t some arcane obscure term—it’s college classes 101. College is a useful learning experience for this type of responsibility. You say its not “self-explanatory”? Good! This is a great opportunity for the 18-year-old to learn what to do when something is not obvious. Ask! Don’t just assume it’s irrelevant. College is a crash course in (small parts of) the real world. If you can’t figure out office hours, you’re gonna have a hard time when it comes to taxes, loans, and other real world things. And the consequences in the real world are much more severe and Real than a bad grade on a problem set.
- musingsole 4y ago
  I'd like to agree. When I was a student, I mostly argued the same myself. However the sheer size of student populations and the complexity of college life have grown exponentially, and they aren't slowing down. With that in mind, this personal responsibility mindset is quaint.

goosedragons 4y ago

I mean if you don't know what it means you could ask? Or even google? Simply googling "office hours college" is enough to get: "Office hours are times when you can meet with your professors and teaching assistants to discuss the material being presented in class or other."

musingsole 4y ago
That's frankly not enough. That's plenty for a student who is on the cusp of slipping behind -- who's been trained on the culture of college since grade school. And it's no help at all to the student who is mostly bewildered by the constant swarm of disjoint activity on a college campus. 4x so for a first generation student. These students understand math and exams. The cultural stuff in the middle mostly goes over their heads.

michaericalribo 4y ago

This is a failure to understand responsibility here. The professor is not responsible for holding your hand and explain every little term—especially terms like “office hours”, which are bog standard at literally every university. This isn’t some arcane obscure term—it’s college classes 101. College is a useful learning experience for this type of responsibility. You say its not “self-explanatory”? Good! This is a great opportunity for the 18-year-old to learn what to do when something is not obvious. Ask! Don’t just assume it’s irrelevant. College is a crash course in (small parts of) the real world. If you can’t figure out office hours, you’re gonna have a hard time when it comes to taxes, loans, and other real world things. And the consequences in the real world are much more severe and Real than a bad grade on a problem set.

musingsole 4y ago
I'd like to agree. When I was a student, I mostly argued the same myself. However the sheer size of student populations and the complexity of college life have grown exponentially, and they aren't slowing down. With that in mind, this personal responsibility mindset is quaint.