Wednesday, October 07, 2009

My Advice to Teachers

I belong to a running group and before I got sick one of my last runs was with a young man who was teaching calculus at the collegiate level. He was telling me about how he was in the impossible position of trying to educate the kids, BUT (are you ready)

the kids were complaining about the difficulty of the course.

Now, it would be at times likes these where previously established standards and criteria would be used to judge whether or not his course was indeed more difficult than other professors. That the dean of the department would look at what topics were being covered and by what stage in the class and then determine if the kids had a legitimate complaint, or were your typical Gen Y type whiners who expect to be given a B+ for having a pulse.

Of course the kids were just complaining and whining because that's how you get what you want nowadays, and my running colleague was not making the class any more difficult than in times past. However, whereas in the past (and by "past" I mean the 1940's) the dean would then side with the teacher, maintaining the educational standards and integrity of the college, this time the dean sided with the students.

According to the professor the dean was concerned about student satisfaction, not to mention that the department received funding based on attendance AND student evaluations of the class. So unhappy students and less students taking calculus = less funding. And thus the emphasis is on making money and NOT giving the kids a good education.

This angered him because he genuinely believed in a good education. He WANTED to teach these kids calculus. However, not only were the students getting in their OWN way of letting this happen, the dean was now coming down on him for daring to hold the students to just a basic standard.

Now I have taught several times before. Twice in college, once as a substitute teacher and once as a tutor (and still teach to this day, but that is adult education which is not the same as what I'm talking here). And if you will permit me to help those of you who are teaching or about to enter teaching or are considering teaching, allow me to give you the single best piece of advice I can possibly give;

Do not worry about the education of your students, only worry about you.

I know this may sound cynical, pessimistic, let alone amoral, and you may be saying, "well, there goes Cappy Cap again, going for shock value and going over the top to make his point," but I'm deadly serious about this.

Do not worry about your students. They are irrelevant. Only worry about you.

You must understand, that at all levels of education, it is no longer about the noble and infinitely important purpose of providing students with a good education. That ship has sailed LONG ago.

"Education" is really nothing more than an act, a play, a theatrical performance to make its participants feel good about themselves. No real production or progress or learning takes place. People just want to go through the motions of "education" so they can get that piece of paper at the end and move on with their lives. And what is happening in reality is this unspoken agreement between the students and the administration of these schools where the students basically PAY to get a degree. The administration sells the degrees and the students buy these degrees.

Now understand there is NO earning the degree. That is NOT what the students are paying for. They are paying for the degree.

Now the problem is you can't have a veritable degree mill where people just walk up to the counter and pay for the degree. Ergo a much more elaborate ruse must be performed where students and colleges feign there is some kind of education going on.

Ergo why you have to perform in a theatrical play for four years acting like you're getting educated.

Understand these are hoops simply there to make it look like it's a legitimate school and that the degree is legitimate. Oh I know they're accredited. I know these are "official" colleges and universities. But forget all that. Just look at the quality and caliber of students coming out of college. They're morons. Complete idiots. Berkeley students think "Benjamin Franklin" was a freaking president. They think $19 trillion is the total bailout bill. And Berkeley is presumably one of the best public schools out there.

Regardless, the problem this presents is that while the students and administration have this unspoken agreement of basically purchasing a degree, the people who are inbetween these two entities are not informed of this agreement; the teachers.

The teachers are the unfortunate souls on the front lines who get the impossible task of reconciling these IRRECONCILABLE goals. They teacher is to somehow "educate" the students, but not make it too hard to the point they might actually learn something, otherwise they'll get fired because the students never really signed up for any kind of rigorous study. Worse still are those naive, idealistic teachers who actually care to go above and beyond and REALLY help educate those kids. Those are the ones who get fired immediately.

Therefore you have two choices.

You can try to be moral and noble and good and actually TRY to teach students. You can do what is in their best interests and give them an education. Unfortunately you WILL be laid off, you WILL be called to the dean's office more often than not, and you WILL never have a long lasting career as a teacher/instructor/professor.

or

You can just play ball and really lower your standards and pass everybody. In this case, yes the students will learn nothing. And yes, they will go forth and not be able to do any job in the future. And yes, society in the future will pay for it. But you will have a job. You will have a career. You will be a "successful" teacher.

The question is one of really morality, however, I want you to seriously consider the REALITY of the teaching environment we have in the US today.

1. Once these kids move on, they're not your problem. They're their parents' or future employer's problem. Additionally, they don't care about you. They care about getting their B and getting out of your class. You have to ask yourself if these kids REALLY don't care about their education and are just there to get their class to move on, then what do you care? If they want to waste their money, then there is nothing you can do. Why sacrifice a paycheck trying to hold them up to standards?

2. Society, namely lazy parents and a dumbed down K-12 school system that sacrifices educational integrity for the sake of saving little kids' "feelings", is to blame for the impossible position you're in. For God's sake, you have parents going into COMPANIES COMPLAINING TO THEIR CHLIDREN'S BOSSES WHEN THEIR KIDS DON'T GET PROMOTED!? What kind of quality and caliber of students can you possibly expect to have? Additionally you must realize the education establishment has no longer become one of education as much as it has been dealing with failure and making "failure" acceptable. Trying to create a world where standards are non-existent. Once you start rocking the boat by insisting standards be applied, you are no longer working towards that universally unspoken goal. In education YOUR JOB is to make sure people get passed. NOT that they get educated.

3. Think about your personal finances. In the end, nobody is going to come looking for you and say, "my teacher sucked and didn't educate me." Again, they moved on and forgot about you long ago. But you and your little lonesome are NOT going to change this society wide decay of education. All you do in trying to stop it is sabotage your personal finances. Put yourself first, because nobody gives a damn about education.

11 comments:

Rob said...

"student evaluations of the class"

Enough said :(

PeppermintPanda said...

Its not (necessarily) the "Dumb" students who can cause the most damage to teachers ...

When I was in school, a former Military College professor began teaching in my math department and his standards were noticeably higher than most professors. It was the students who were used to getting high grades without putting much effort into classes who filed a grievance against him (and got him fired) because their "Easy A" became a "Hard B" ...

Anonymous said...

There are 2 alternatives to this:

1) Charter Schools
2) Private Schools

EOM

Anonymous said...

The Captain has indeed noted the most-high secret "crown jewel" of the dysfunction of the education establishment.

If you are a student, keep in mind that you are primarily responsible for what your learn. The teacher only makes available the pool of knowledge - you must choose to drink of it. And the amount of knowledge and skills you gain are proportional to your effort and desire to learn.

If you are teacher, you really have a choice of selling yourself out to the dysfunction, railing against the dysfunction or leaving the teaching "profession".

Most college students have no idea how to apply themselves nor do they have the motivation to do so.

Hot Sam said...

Reality lies somewhere between those two extremes.

Like you, I have experience with teaching/administration at a proprietary college. Many of those kids shouldn't have passed 5th grade much less be in college. With students like that, even the best teacher would be challenged.

It is also true that complaining students bring the ire of the Dean onto the teacher. A good dean will recognize the difference between slacker students and a poor teacher.

Teaching is a form of communication and social interaction. Some people don't have the personality to ever be a good teacher. Others don't have the communication skills. Others don't care enough to be a good teacher.

Some teachers are so smart about their subject, they don't understand why their students don't understand. I think a teacher who, himself, had to struggle to learn understands where the student is having problems.

Some teachers are so dumb about their subjects, they'll never be effective no matter how well they communicate and get along with their students.

Rapport, communication, knowledge, approachability, and dedication are the keys to good teaching.

The trouble is that too many BAD teachers actually think they're good because they're "working hard." In some schools, the administration doesn't give the teachers the power to enforce discipline which undermines the classroom environment. I've seen college classrooms that are noisier than zoos.

Milton Hayek said...

What kind of school was this? The first two classes of a year-long calc sequence are traditionally used as weeder courses, they are *supposed* to be hard and that's the way the universities like them, keeps the non-hackers from going for a STEM degree that they won't be able to finish. So they only waste one year and not three :-)

Bike Bubba said...

Well said. My brother was actually fired from a teaching job in San Jose because he dared to insist that high school sophomores actually be able to perform basic arithmetic. Like his older brother (me), he has a difficult time agreeing to debasing the currency of learning.

Great reason to homeschool, IMO.

geoih said...

I think your example (i.e., calculus) might be a bad one. I would ask how your teacher friend was teaching calculus. I would assume he's using the same "accepted" methods used virtually everywhere.

It's been recognized for decades that the methods used for teaching calculus are horrible, yet the same methods continue. I'm speaking as somebody who taught myself calculus, after failing the subject in college twice (I breezed through the college course with an A the third time, after I taught myself).

I do agree with your premise. At some point the teacher's own self-interest has to kick in. If the teacher really feels they have a calling to truly teach, then they need to find a different outlet. Maybe private tutoring on the side or something.

Anonymous said...

Most of the idiots at Berkeley are in art or anthropology or such. Ignore em. 2/3 of all students majoring in something productive manage to graduate. And that 2/3 that survives have really earned it.

Anonymous said...

All too true, and not only in the lower 48.
We have the same PC/socialistic nonsense in the Great White North.
Have you considered that the present conditions are one result of old Joe Stalin's fifth column infiltrators? And why they have never properly been purged from North America?

Bruce said...

Due to the idiocies of our society, including politicians and union employees who are almost insisting that everyone should have free and easy access to a college education, this is mostly a cost issue. I don't like it, as I am a data-driven cheap-skate (aka "engineer"). Much of this has little "real" impact other than higher taxes and more people on the dole. The Dolers might not be a significantly higher percentage than their equivalent of 100 years ago.

I posit that the reason for success in the US school system has been this: The teachers and school systems (even most of the private ones) are not equipped nor interested in working with the top 0.5-2% (maybe even 5%) of any class. Those students are left to their own devices. they teach themselves. Often their only "external" (to themselves) motivation is parents who push them. That top 1% end up being the physical scientists, engineers, occasionally accountants and economists, and surgeons. They always have been. In the old days, they did it without college - they continued to be self-taught. I saw some stats years ago: only 3% of the population had an education in advanced math and science. Only 3% of that number were chemical engineers.

Here's where I AM concerned: as we become more socialist/fascist minded, the desire is to raise up (on a relative scale) the bottom 3-5%, and berate and belittle (even more) the undeserving ingrates at the top for standing out. It was hard enough 40 years ago to be in the handful in the school (I was lucky - went to a school that had really large classes, so we could find each other) who were constantly teased and ostracized. Now we have school councilors who "council" the top kids to not stand out.