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I've been teaching community college math for 25 years, and it's getting to the point that I'm going to have to see a therapist for the depression I feel when it comes to dealing with the day to day affairs of teaching cc students. I, as well as most other teachers, have come from a background of trying to succeed. We went to college with a thirst for knowledge, not just in our own fields, but in any class we were taking. Yes, granted some were more interesting than others , but the point is that in college we acted as "students"; we studied and attended classes regularly. I can not begin to relate the abject stupidity and extreme apathy that I see in about 80% of my math students. I am not exaggerating when I say that I saw more qualified and intelligent students in a summer school session of 6th graders that I taught back in the late 80's. I'm venting in this forum because as a professional, I can not say to students in the classroom setting what I feel. I can not tell them the "truth" about how horrible their performance is. I can not ask "why can't you follow simple directions" or "why is it that your homework is illegible and half of it is unfinished". "Why are you not taking class notes" or "why do you take class notes but you don't even read the notes before an exam", "why are you getting less than 40% on the exams when the exam questions are practically given to you beforehand", "why are you starting your homework just days before it's due when you've had weeks", "why do you expect to be spoon fed answers and you haven't even taken a couple minutes to look at your textbook before asking the question","why do you buy a textbook but never even read it", "why are you still attending class even though your grade is so low you can not mathematically pass this class even if you got 100% on the final", "why is it you are not aware that you are failing when your grades are posted after every exam", "why do you bother taking an exam when the only thing you write in it is your name on the front page", "why didn't you bring a calculator even though you can buy one for less than $5 or borrow one from a friend", "why do you think that cramming 5-10 min right before an exam is sufficient preparation when you've been told over and over that at least 4 or more hours is needed","why do you turn your homework in unstapled, pages out of order or with no name on the front". And the biggest why would be "why do you do the same thing, repeating your bad behavior and inept actions even though you've failed this same class in the past with other instructors?" . Can I quote a famous proverb that "insanity is repeating the same thing over and over and expecting a different result". I wish I could henna tattoo this proverb a la Mike Tyson style on the heads of a large and ever growing population of my unmotivated, zombie, cc math students. In spite of the day to day moronic stupor that I encounter in my classes, I still try my best to teach and inspire as best I can. I still try and do a good job, however over the 20 years I've noticed that my motivation has changed from a once naïve optimism that I'm making a difference in lives to now simply a sense of professional duty to myself. In other words, my conscience would be greatly vexed if I ever got close to the apathy level of my general audience. I'll end my rant with this; modern day "community college" is really just a euphemism for "A place for the educationally inept, unmotivated and confused who are relearning what should've been learned in grade school".
I think it's time for you to retire. Or maybe you should have retired years ago. Your attitude sucks, and I bet it comes out loud and clear to your students who respond to you in kind. I taught middle school in inner city schools for several years before leaving to go into computer programming, so I know a little bit about teaching students who tend to struggle in an academic setting. For the last 18 years, I've worked at a community college and have many friends among the faculty. None of them has ever expressed your disdain for their students that you've expressed here.
I don't know where you teach, but my college is in a small city in a predominantly rural area with a high poverty rate. Yes, there are kids who are attending because they don't have anything better to do ... or maybe they don't really know what they want to do. Yes, there are kids who are attending here because they couldn't get into four year schools. Hell, some of our students work on their GEDs while taking classes and other students haven't seen the inside of a classroom since HS 20 years ago. We have no entrance requirements because we welcome all those students other colleges deem "not college material", but that's part and parcel of this school's raison d'etre. If you teach here, you have to make your peace with that reality.
Maybe the community college where you teach is in a larger and more prosperous area and attracts a different group of students. Maybe you're suffering from "burn out". Maybe you're envious of colleagues at four year schools because you think that the students there don't skip classes, always prep for tests, never don't complete homework, etc, etc, etc ... Guess again. And it's not a new phenomenon, either. There have always been a subset of students who cut classes, who don't do homework, who blow off tests.
You say you've been teaching CC classes for 25 years. Have you noticed a significant change in student behavior and studiousness over that time? Was it gradual, or was there a certain period of time within the 25 years that there was a precipitous decline? To what would you attribute the change?
I've taught a few university classes. I noticed something similar, though not as extreme, even in university classes. The only students who actually read the material for class, pay attention, do the homework, and study for tests, i.e. behave as you'd expect students to behave, are the Honors students. Faculty dream of getting an Honors class, so they can teach to interested, engaged students.
Your experience sounds unbearable. Hopefully, you'll be able to retire early.
I wonder to what extent the selectivity of the university have an effect on the prevalence of bad student behaviors.
I hope Minnesota isn't too severe because, in all likelihood, I will TA introductory classes first. All the experience I have of TA back home is in an intermediate electromagnetism class (at Minnesota, that class would be senior-level) and grading homework for an applied abstract algebra course (this would be a graduate-level course in most US schools at Minnesota's level).
To be fair, TAing such advanced coursework as one's first taste of contact-hour TA is just too much.
Linda_d, I can tell you're not a teacher in the sciences because if you were you'd realize that we have a logical , and moral obligation no less to grade based on objective standards and not because "the student tried" or "you felt they deserved a passing grade" or some bizarre personal standard that fluctuates semester to semester based on the ethnicity or socioeconomic make-up of your class. I wish I could simply look the other way, say kumbaya , pop open a bottle of cold duck at the end of the semester and pass all of my students. The rude awakening comes when that student I gave a friendly C can't even do basic prerequisite material in the next level sequential class. To the point, our grades in the sciences have consequences. We are all held to a minimum standard, thank goodness, that doesn't shift just because the wind changed direction. It's teachers like yourself that dumb down a class, teaching to the lowest common denominator that consequently, in a dominoe like pitfall, allow succeeding generations of students to progressively get "more educated" yet all the while knowing even less and less. Yours is the academic equivalent of a monetary inflation where a million units is insufficient to purchase a loaf of bread. I'm not going to stop that trend by voicing my concerns here, but I wouldn't be surprised if a bachelors degree in the near future will become the intellectual equivalent of a high school diploma in the mid 1900's ( perhaps it's already happened ). I can definitely say that something has gone awry already in our system when I get a student who just recently earned a high school diploma, yet he can't do basic multiplication. Yes, I'll retire in 5 years, but at least I'll retire with a clean conscience.
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This isn't just for CCs. This is also VERY TRUE of low ranked, below Tier 1 status universities.
I, unfortunately (and i guess fortunately), had the opportunity and the life experience to see the differences between good and bad universities. I'm at a highly ranked national private right now as an FYI.
There is a HUGE and VERY NOTICEABLE gap in the kind of intellect/person you will meet at a "good" school and a "bad/low ranked" school. It is very apparent.
There is a certain amount of laziness, ignorance, lack of ambition, and lack of work ethic and planning that you WILL notice in those lower ranked universities. (aka CCs)
I believe that this correlates with the socioeconomic class system in society today as well. As the lower class( and not to sound pretentious) are generally going to hold those qualities: laziness, ignorance, lack of ambition and work ethic, and lack of planning.
You will NOT notice those at most Tier 1 (good) or highly ranked privates... it is entirely different
.....I can definitely say that something has gone awry already in our system when I get a student who just recently earned a high school diploma, yet he can't do basic multiplication....
or spell or write a coherent grammatically correct sentence. By the way - how can you afford to retire in 5 years????
Instructor in Community College Blammed when her students are lazy!
A friend is an Instructor in a special Work Force Development Program at a local Community College. She teaches students training for a career in Administrative Support. The classes are pass fail with no A-F grades. Basically if the students show up and basically complete the homework assignments, they pass and get the diploma.
The Instructor has tried just about everything she can think of to motivate the students and even had experts come into her class to evaluate her approach. In the end the students continue to do the absolute minimum.
She is at wits end with the laziness of the students. They have it down to a science how to do the absolute minimum and still get by. In frustration, my friend, the Instructor, went to the Dean and asked for his advice on how to get the students motivated and the Dean unloaded on her. The Dean said, there was no such thing as unmotivated students, just ineffective teachers.
Do you agree, with the Dean. If the students are lazy it is basically the fault of the Instructor for not being engaging enough?
Your instructor friend needs to understand that these students are juggling several other classes along with this one. Based on the fact that this class is simply pass/fail, simply show up & do the work, it is probably the least stressful class these students have on their plates. When they're in that easy class they are likely in a mindset of enjoying some reprieve from the rest of their hectic, stressful schedules. If the class had stricter requirements, a point system, tests, etc, the students would show more drive.
The Instructor has tried just about everything she can think of to motivate the students and even had experts come into her class to evaluate her approach. In the end the students continue to do the absolute minimum.
She is at wits end with the laziness of the students.
Unfortunately, there are a number of post-secondary jobs that cater to the "job retraining" gravy train. The only ones who truly make any money are program administrators. Teachers in those programs are typically paid poorly and the tax payers are taken for a ride: the economy IS NOT in a recovery. There are FEW new jobs out there that these training programs are actually filling.
She has three choices:
1. Accept that her students are lazy and that she is just there to collect a paycheck.
2. Get busy publishing, writing grants, and aim for a position at a college where education is valued.
3. Get out of teaching and find something else to do.
If she takes the route of #1, work on being pleasant to the students and keep the course easy with lots of extra credit. That will result in higher evaluations, which will make the Dean happier. She needs to realize that her role is babysitting, not teaching.
Final point: if the economy were in a recovery and several local businesses were hiring grads from the program, then it's a different animal. That sort of workforce program can be excellent. I worked with one that was helping newly released former felons transition back into society. That program was worth tax payer dollars. It was making a difference in keeping re-offender numbers low because these folks were getting jobs and rebuilding their self confidence. Back then, the economy was a little better.
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Instructor in Community College Blammed when her students are lazy!
