adsii1970

Life on the university campus:
(Fall 2021 Semester, second posting)

A tale of two students

Most of the time, you only hear about my rants of either the bad decisions by administrators or low achieving and uncaring students. This post, I decided to do something different. I decided to share two contrasting students. One is a great student and the other, well, you'll get the picture. If it were not for the great and really good students, I would have changed professions a long time ago. I don't care who you are, there is nothing no dehumanizing or demoralizing than to work in a career path and give all you can to people who do not value what you do. We all have a basic desire to be appreciated for what we do.

The appreciative student:

Yesterday, I opened my campus email to discover a student had sent an email to me, but included the campus president, the main college provost, and the registrar. She, a 34-year-old single mother of three, wanted to thank me for a great class and the help and encouragement I had given her throughout the course of the semester. She found the comments I left on her assignments to be helpful, encouraging, and great tools for helping her understand what professors expected out of students. She also appreciated my willingness to answer her questions, treating her with respect, and being available through email, text messaging, and phone calls, in addition to my normal office hours.

She also added that had it not been for my patience, she probably would not have not done as well as she had in my course or the other courses she had. She also wished two of her other professors (she named them by name) would have been as "student friendly" as I am and willing to be there for the student. She said it was easy to tell I was knowledgeable and passionate about the course and my enthusiasm for history was contagious. She said that my one comment at the first of the term - even if you hate history, find the one small subject you like that we discuss in it, and fallow it - made the difference in the rest of her classes. 

No, there was nothing magical I did. I treat all my students the same way. It is just that each student responds differently.

The unappreciative student:

The same week that email was sent, another email was sent not to me, but to the campus president, the provost, and the registrar. The student demanded an "A" in the course and complained I was discriminating against them because of their lack of interest in history. See, this student was in the same course as the young woman above. But instead of attending the lectures, this student has only attended the first week of class - two lectures out of the 28 lectures already held. This student has not submitted any work besides one small ten-point writing assignment on the Code of Hammurabi (and the student did not submit it on time, but two weeks late). Yet, in the mind of the student, the problem is not his attitude, it is mine.

So, this 19-year-old student, who only attended two classes is demanding an "A," having never done any real work in the course. He hasn't shown up for any lectures since the first week, yet feels discriminated against because he does not like history. The problem is he never gave the course a chance. See, I understand that hardly any student who takes one of my 100 or 200 level courses are history majors. So, I do not teach them as I would a 300, 400, or 500 level course. I teach a general knowledge history course - enough to get you beyond the first round of Jeopardy! (the American television game show). I also teach to a variety of learning and performance styles, too. So, you failed two exams  - it's still possible to walk out of one of my survey courses with a "B." So, you're not good at writing term papers. With a little hard work, and if you're willing to attend a term paper writing workshop I offer, you'll still get a "B" in the course. It takes effort on the part of the student, but the potential to pass with a decent grade (C/B is what I consider decent) is there.

The moral of the story:

I am not sure there is one. Most students leave my class and are never heard from again. Some, I run into occasionally. Others, I see on an almost weekly or daily basis in the area. There are some who see me and will turn the other way. There are others who will introduce me to their partner, and now, their young children. Some will say, "this is the professor who taught me about life. No, they may not remember much about the Roman Empire or the Indus River Valley's importance to civilization, but something they learned in my class taught them something about who they are. And to me, that's enough reward.