Friday, July 16, 2010

Unprepared students

I've been teaching a composition class this summer. I usually don't teach during the summer, but I've come to a realization that there's a sharp dichotomy between the types of students that have signed up for my class: some are really good, and some are really not.

When I say really not, I mean they're so computer illiterate that they don't know how to double-space their papers in Microsoft Word. They create a new blog for each assigned blog post. They don't understand how to use the class platform website. They don't read the textbook I put together for them that explains how to do all of that, and don't read the instructions on any of the assignments.

And they whine to me about being unable to meet even my minimal expectations when they get an F.

I'm not saying my students can fuck off (even though I'd love to tell some of them that). It's not entirely their fault that they're so stupid. No, the ones that ought to fuck off are the ones that told them that they're capable of college level work when they're obviously not smart enough to do college level work.

The flo9r is yours.

5 comments:

ricki said...

the possibility that the big-spending, we-wanna-micromanage-your-life congresscritters, when they get voted out and turn lame duck, will pass all kinds of horrible crap (like cap and trade) that will wind up screwing all of our lives - kind of a Dead Hand sort of thing - can really FTFO.

I'm actually becoming frightened about what's going to happen here.

Also: people who use the "racist!" claim when it's simply that they disagree with someone else's opinion, and race really has nothing to do with it.

Kate P said...

Oh, HH, I tried so hard at the high school this past year to help kids out with stuff like that, and it just baffles me that students are introduced to typing up their work so very early but not really shown the formatting capabilities that pretty much are the whole point of word processing apps.

My cat's digestive issues can fuck off. I'm tired of cleaning up poo/puke, giving medicine, and just plain worrying about her.

Kate P said...

Also, fucking spammers can fuck off. It used to be so rare, but now I post something and the first or second comment is spam. I can't stand it!

Laura's Daughter said...

Ooh! Ooh! I've got one! The only problem is my mom reads this, so I can't be as profane as I'd like to be ;)

The people at work apparently think that Quality Control people just sit around twiddling their thumbs and saying stuff like "Man, we haven't screwed over Production lately. I think I'll come up with some random nonsense to spew at them and slow them down. They've been too, too, what do you call it, productive lately."

So I've accidentally been immersed in a sort of real-life flame-war at work. Yes, it is super juvenile. My supervisor went on vacation for nearly a month, during which time I took her place. When she came back all rested and fresh, and saw the thick, juicy stack I left her of paperwork that was not complete, not correct, or plain not recieved, I guess it just hit her all of a sudden how much of that crap we have to deal with on a daily basis, and she sent out an e-mail basically stating that this retardation has got to stop. Ensue the flame war!
Suddenly it's the first that the people in charge have heard of this problem, when we should have been telling them all along (not that we, you know, haven't been), and we should have said something sooner anyway because it's easier to fix mistakes when they happen rather than a few weeks later. When it's pointed out that we don't even get the paperwork until a few weeks later, in some cases, suddenly that's all right because they're still within the official time frame.

There have been emails and phone calls back and forth about this, telling my supervisor to "calm down" (seriously!) and take responsibilty, and this morning in a meeting they said -in front of all the department heads!- again that our department should be getting on this faster and should have told more people. Unfortunately I was representing the department at this meeting, and unfortunately I, unlike my supervisor, do have a temper, so it's quite lucky the big boss is out of state. When I basically got lectured in front of everyone else I waited until the meeting was through then I walked up to the man and, er, reopened the discussion.

It's sooo much fun to get talked down to by the men in charge because you're the girl! Woo! I know my supervisor just adores it too. This is probably why she doesn't go to the meetings.

Oh, and then they brought up something that one of the lab techs did wrong and said that we can't tell them to do the right thing if we aren't even doing the right thing. Yeah, they went there.

The Fifth String said...

Aw jeez, LD, that sucks bigtime.

Once again, fuck off to Friday meetings.