I couldn’t agree more!

I started taking tap lessons — with no previous formal dance experience — during my sabbatical last spring. And, trust me, I had the very same experience describe here: I found myself a motivated but woefully underprepared student.

I haven’t made things any easier on my students, but I sympathize more (and have even tapped, albeit badly, for them occasionally).

Gil GIgliotti, Professor and Chair at CCSU, at 8:55 am EST on March 7, 2008

Perry,I think that you are displacing your anger at an administration that does not honor your efforts and sufficiently remunerate you onto your students. I am not suggesting lowering standards, simply to have some sensitivity.

Alan Groveman, at 9:50 am EST on March 7, 2008

Students should learn that is not all fun and games

I may be an exception, but I take pride of my accomplishments. I came from those disadvantage places you mention, and low and behold I hold two terminal degrees. There are several factors and reasons students are not motivated and/or do not care about education. This is the generation that grew-up with Barney, Mr. Rogers, and “a mommy and daddy telling them they can be anything they want... because they are perfect". They are all winners and the best. Yet reality settles in, and that’s where their motivation drops and in the words of a book out there, “their reality check bounces.”

Also these students have gadgets which were not available during “our time". Cell phones, PDAs, PC’s, Ipods, Iphone, Instant Messenger, Texting, and FaceBook.

Now, if I were to draw a line in the middle of a piece of paper and ask how many hours do they spend on facebook, texting, YouTube, and IM on the left side, and on the right side doing the homework, i.e., reading, going over their notes, lectures, talking with their peers about today’ discussion or readings...guess what side would win? Only in the USA, we try to accommodate an invisible yet empowered class, called the students (via Mom and Dad calling to see why my baby is not getting A’s).

So the question of learning about our students to understand them should go both ways instead of finding blame on social factors. Not everybody has gone through that, not every High School abandons students. I work closely with High schools and find they have improved on the counseling and advising. Motivation begins by being motivated by the subject one teaches. Our “Millenial” generation has the span of attention of a remote channel surfer (remember that?) Therefore, as a professor you need to become a multitasker and deliver the content dynamically and be enthusiastic about your subject. It’s no brainer. What you teach with passion is learned with passion, to paraphrase the poet.

Furthermore, as I started this response, I am a product of those low income schools with all the struggles and debts. We have to stop thinking of “man is a product of his environment, therefore it is against him/her". Let’s put a stop pointing fingers and focus on the issue. If we were to give them a break, would other countries do the same? I surely doubt it. Education, unfortunately is a business, as such, is about producing, accountability, and numbers. I teach international and global business practices. Our students cannot be afforded the luxury to cut them some slack. In this era, the other countries will and are eating them up. Look at the statistics of “Foreign graduates” entering our “local market". I say study smart, not hard. If we are to create leaders, let’s create them not pamper them.

In conclusion, I do undertand their plight, I’ve been there, but let’s stop this Barney and Mr. Rogers mentality and help them to help themselves. This generation of multitasking Millennials need to focus, and become great at their task, be as Aristotle said, virtuous in their chosen field of study, to be excellent, to live a life worth living. By cutting them some slack, by “poor them", by dumbing down our education because little Suzy and Johnny did not get sleep or didn’t do this or that, is not going to help them in the real world. A world which ironically from our Ivory towers, we profess to teach and prepare our students. So, before asking us to learn how to dance, let’s learn how they dance so we can both dance together.

Nelson Lopez, at 10:25 am EST on March 7, 2008

I agree that we need to learn about student’s lives, not simply expect them to conform to ours. If they spend alot of time on facebook, get on facebook (I have, and my students are delighted). If they use ipods, use ipods. The world is changing and our students are incredibly technologically proficient, and we can either use it to connect with them, or remain out of step. Personally, I use alot of media in my courses. I show The Simpsons, The Office, use YouTube. Why not? There is a wonderful book called “The First Year Out” that addresses where our students are. How can we get our students to look at our disciplines and knowledge if we don’t have at least some respect for theirs?

psychology prof, at 12:25 pm EST on March 7, 2008

I teach at a similar institution as Professor Groveman. Our students, too, are also woefully unprepared for college-level work, and many exhibit this same intellectual disinterest described in the article. Yet, Professor Groveman’s assertion that he is not advocating the lowering standards rings hollow. I can, and I do, sympathize with my students when they are overwhelmed with life (work, family, etc), but what then? Do I ease up on standards to compensate for this, or do I reluctantly assign the grade they earned? Sympathy, in this case, is not the issue, and his suggestions do nothing to address the real problem: how to reach the underprepared, overwhelmed, and generally unmotivated student. The idea of faculty learning to dance in order to sympathize with students is silly. I would respectfully ask Professor Groveman what’s next? How do we address the unprepared student without lowering standards, especially in regard to those whose skills and academic abilities are on the junior high level.

Dan, at 1:15 pm EST on March 7, 2008

Or swim...

Stephen Brookfield used a story about learning to swim as part of his keynote presentation at POD (the national faculty professional development group). His thesis was that we forget, sometimes, how hard it can be to learn. He also came out of the experience with some concrete ideas about improving his teaching. (For example, he talked about how one might feel taking white-water rafting lessons from someone who said, “We’re in this to learn together.” Sometimes you need to present yourself as an expert.)

I think there are at least three ways to think about our students’ lack of preparation, motivation, etc. The first is to excuse ourselves from responsibility for their failures. The second, the one that raised hackles in some of the previous posts — is to consider these factors as a way of excusing students and lowering our expectations for their performance. The third is to accept that this is the hand we have been dealt and to take advantage of various tools and pedagogical skills to provide students the best opportunity for success. For example, there is literature on motivating students, there are techniques for incentivizing them to do assigned readings before class, there are ways to scaffold instruction and provide direction to resources for remediation and extra assistance.

If those times in which faculty bemoan student inadequacies morph into problem-solving discussions rather than mere gripe sessions, both the students and the faculty members would be happier.

Lynda Harding, at 3:25 pm EST on March 7, 2008

This is one of the most asinine ideas I’ve heard of-you assume college professors make it to their rank/status without experiencing hardships and/or failure along the way. You have my vote for the boneheaded idea of this academic year. “Your Mamma can’t dance and your Daddy can’t rock-n-roll”

patrickmasterson, at 5:15 am EDT on March 9, 2008

An age-old Philosophy updated...

As I read through this, the teaching (learning) concept that never changes comes to mind:

One must first learn where they are...(and take the necessary time to do it)

Only then will you be able to take them from where they are...

To where you want them to be!

What else is there?

Edward Winslow, A tired “refired” business professor, at 10:05 am EDT on April 16, 2008