Okay really quick complaining session before I get back to working really hard to finish this analysis assignment before 2PM.
I’m already becoming disillusioned about working in academia. College students are whiny and feel they are entitled to whatever they want. Sure, college is a service they pay for, but they’re not paying for an A, they’re paying for an opportunity to learn.
Also, I’m glad I’m done with being a TA after this semester. Last semester my students complained because recitation was often focusing on sections covered 1-2 weeks ago in lecture and they were falling behind in the new material being taught. So, this semester I am busting my ass to keep up with the lecture. I am writing my own mini-lectures to reinforce material, coming up with my own examples, basically writing my own mini class that’s done at the same pace as the real class, just so the students feel they are being reinforced in the lecture material in a timely manner (within 2 days of the first time the material is lectured over in class). And today my students complained that they feel rushed and don’t have time to ask questions about old material.
Firstly, at the beginning of every class I offer a slice of time to ask questions about older material. If you don’t speak up, how am I supposed to know you’re struggling? Today a student claimed that I straight up ignored a question he asked about a previous section because we had to move on to new material and I honestly don’t remember this happening. But even if this did happen, I can fall to my next topic:
I sit in my office for four hours a week with the sole purpose of helping students and only 1 student makes use of it (for only 30 min a week). If you feel the class is moving too fast and you want to slow down, come to office hours to ask about older material. If you feel the class is moving too slow and you want to make sure you understand the newer concepts, come to office hours to ask about the newer material. If you aren’t available during my normal office hours, e-mail me for an appointment. I’m always here anyway.
And I don’t think it will be any better when I have my own class (as opposed to TAing) – which will probably be next semester. Then the students will just complain that the grading is too harsh, the material is too hard, I’m moving too fast (or too slow?), etc.
I honestly can not imagine saying the things to a teacher that some of my students have said to me. Don’t get me wrong, I really do want constructive feedback. I want to be able to improve my teaching; whether I end up in academia as a career or not, I still want to be the best I can be at it. But I have never bitched at a teacher for how they’ve run their classroom the way some of my own students have to me, either about me or about the lecturer for the class. Not inside my own major department (either in undergrad or in grad school), and not outside my major in classes I really didn’t like. If I didn’t have anything constructive to say, even if I felt like complaining, I saved it for venting sessions with my friends at the bar (or in my blog) not to the teacher’s face. If it’s not something they can change, why bother being “that guy”?
I’m just feeling discouraged with teaching right now. I know it will have its ups and downs, and right now it’s a down. But, normally my 10AM class is much cheerier than my 8AM class, so hopefully in 45 min when I get to teach my other section they’ll be less whiny, at least today. I need them to be my pick-me-up today since my 8AM class was such a downer.
I don’t want to sound whiny and complainy myself, but I find writing therapeutic and I just need to get this out. Honestly, it’s just one super bitchy student in my 8AM class that is souring the whole class for me. But college students in general are never happy and I don’t know if I can take that kind of negativity for the rest of my life unless I just become much more bitchy with them myself. But usually you have to get some experience (life and teaching experience) under your belt before an institution will tolerate you being somewhat of a jerk to your students. Then again, there’s negativity in industry jobs too. I worked for a large corporation and there’s always drama and personality clashes.
Sigh. What a Tuesday morning.
Okay, I could keep chugging along with my stream of consciousness, but I really do have to get back to this homework. Adios, y’all. 😛
EDIT: PS. This is not me proclaiming that I am definitely ruling out teaching as a career choice. I’m just having a bad day and this one incident is what I have to complain about.
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