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You must have experience teaching! I do not, but my wife does. She is a professor of English and she relates stories to me of her classes daily. One thing that

You must have experience teaching! I do not, but my wife does. She is a professor of English and she relates stories to me of her classes daily. One thing that helps her classes is that she always explains why they need to learn something, and she never introduces a lesson that doesn't further her own learning outcomes that she has set up (for intro classes she structures such that students are ready for her upper level courses, and for those courses she structures such that students will be able to succeed not only in English but also in other areas as well). One thing that's very common (check out the CCCC literature on the subject, and as a matter of fact my wife is presenting there this week) is trying to find ways to ignite student engagement. You have thousands of extremely bright people who expend countless hours simply trying to figure out how to make students care. That to me does not point to a failure of teachers. And on that let me recount my own college experience: I was a shitty student for undergrad. I didn't go to class, I didn't do the reading, I didn't do the work, and I failed all the tests. And this isn't just for classes I dislikes, it was for all of them. There was no specific reason for it though my wife and I were broke the whole time, but really that's just an excuse I told myself. And so eventually I brought my GPA up from a .5 to a 2.6 so that I could graduate (it was very fucking hard to do that, the system is stacked against you mathematically). Then I decided to go to graduate school and I kicked ass and took names. I don't know what changed but I became "the surprise star of the class" (professor's words) multiple times and when I graduated I had a 3.9 (only because by the end I had 3 full time jobs as well as taking a full course load, so I phoned in a final assignment that was worth a huge chunk of my GPA in one class). In all of those cases it had nothing to do with my professors. They were kind, entertaining, generous with their time, and worked very hard to try to keep me engaged. The turn around came when I decided to take ownership of my education and of my career afterwards.

dhimes 13y ago
I do not, but my wife does. She is a professor of English and she relates stories to me of her classes daily. One thing that helps her classes is that she always explains why they need to learn something, and she never introduces a lesson that doesn't further her own learning outcomes that she has set up (for intro classes she structures such that students are ready for her upper level courses, and for those courses she structures such that students will be able to succeed not only in English but also in other areas as well). Yep, and I guarantee you that unless she is teaching only electives she has students who would rather not have to take her class. I was a professor of Physics for a decade. I worked hard at it, was considered excellent and lively and all the good stuff. I also did what your wife does. Yet, there are students who didn't want to be there, pure and simple. Sometimes it takes a little wisdom imparted by time to know what you should like, and many students don't have that maturity yet.
- amscanne 13y ago
  Beyond that, I think some people don't accept that sometimes they will need to do things they don't like (i.e. work hard to do well in a "boring" required course). This may also come with age, but I think it's a more common attitude than in previous generations. I hope everyone can find things to do in life that they love. But with anything, there are always going to be things you hate: changing diapers as a parent, some "boring" courses as a student, dealing with cheaters as a teacher...

dhimes 13y ago

I do not, but my wife does. She is a professor of English and she relates stories to me of her classes daily. One thing that helps her classes is that she always explains why they need to learn something, and she never introduces a lesson that doesn't further her own learning outcomes that she has set up (for intro classes she structures such that students are ready for her upper level courses, and for those courses she structures such that students will be able to succeed not only in English but also in other areas as well). Yep, and I guarantee you that unless she is teaching only electives she has students who would rather not have to take her class. I was a professor of Physics for a decade. I worked hard at it, was considered excellent and lively and all the good stuff. I also did what your wife does. Yet, there are students who didn't want to be there, pure and simple. Sometimes it takes a little wisdom imparted by time to know what you should like, and many students don't have that maturity yet.

amscanne 13y ago
Beyond that, I think some people don't accept that sometimes they will need to do things they don't like (i.e. work hard to do well in a "boring" required course). This may also come with age, but I think it's a more common attitude than in previous generations. I hope everyone can find things to do in life that they love. But with anything, there are always going to be things you hate: changing diapers as a parent, some "boring" courses as a student, dealing with cheaters as a teacher...