Boy can I relate to this from the bottom of my soul. Right now I have "anonymous" who, semester after semester, will pop up two months later to tell me he missed the advising appointment that I sent out numerous emails about and ask "what can I still do" only to find out that all of the classes he needs are full. I will say "you really shouldn't do this next semester again" and he will do it next semester again.
You are right about the permanent record as I remember taking some courses that I thought we be good on my resume and ended up putting them on pass/fail.
Your students are lucky to have an advisor that looks out for them. My daughter had one (while attending a costly private college) who encouraged her to follow a new path that would have given her a degree but not anything else. Being as we were all burdened with debt, and college is not free, this was not encouraged by us. Perhaps at some point our country will see the value in continued education that does not leave the student and family in permanent debt.
That's part of the goal, as well. Let's limit how much money you'll spend here on campus so that you can go out and make money to pay off this horrible debt.
But that's not the only reason I've been thinking more and more about the tightness of the requirements we contemporary USians impose on pretty much everyone, and how pointillistically people are evaluated. It's a system that demands wildly compulsive ticking of list items, and it seems to me to make nearly everyone assume some dysfunction label when their performances Don't Measure Up.
It's a Screwtape bureaucracy in which even factotums are having their entrails gnawed as they gnaw the entrails of those under their supervision.
Thank you for helping students through such systems! But the systems seem to me to have got much tighter, not only in schools. And self-care products and disciplines burgeon as we insist that valid humans can Always adjust to artificially created systems, as the screws tighten.
This is an entire world, right here. How much DOES a student need a math course? I would suggest, if they're going into journalism, or the real world, they need that class. Math matters. Science matters, and not just for non-science majors. I hope that teachers at the front of classes of a lot of non-majors make it their business to make that class important and interesting for all. I love having criminal justice majors in my classes (it does happen) and I try to help them leave with a new love of communication law, the media, and journalism. But yes. The whole idea of self-care when the system is gamed against that is really ridiculous.
I definitely wasn't thinking about distributional requirements, which I strongly favor as long as they've got some flex.* They are, in my view, invitations to liberation for students raised To Be a Dentist/Doctor/Lawyer/Scientist/whatever, and invitations to expanded understanding for students who have shunned maths and sciences.
I was thinking about firehose style education, and pointillistic inflexible grading, more than anything else.
* As a college instructor, I argued against distributional requirements motivated by some elysian vision of The Well-Rounded Humanist Scholar-- one actually met by no oe I've ever known. And those motivated substantially as supports to particular departments.
Math matters. And I'm not just saying that as an undergraduate math major. If you can master calculus, even one semester of it, then you can teach yourself whatever other math you may need to know to get through life. How mortgages work, for example.
I appreciate this. My options were a shirt factory, and the local library. I'd have loved that second job but wouldn't have been able to support a family. For me, higher education made all the difference.
Over the past few years we’ve been lucky enough to replace our retiring electrician, plumber and hvac person with 20/30 somethings all trained in the state vocational system. Two of them took over the business from their fathers who I’ve known most of my life so I know a little more about them then you might normally. All of them have good lives, solid income, plenty of work and varied interests that extend beyond their work. Interests that might lead some people to wrongly (and perhaps snobbishly) assume they had a college education. So yeah, there’s other ways to do life.
Boy can I relate to this from the bottom of my soul. Right now I have "anonymous" who, semester after semester, will pop up two months later to tell me he missed the advising appointment that I sent out numerous emails about and ask "what can I still do" only to find out that all of the classes he needs are full. I will say "you really shouldn't do this next semester again" and he will do it next semester again.
Yep. I have a couple of those. I've stopped hounding them. This is their education.
You are right about the permanent record as I remember taking some courses that I thought we be good on my resume and ended up putting them on pass/fail.
Your students are lucky to have an advisor that looks out for them. My daughter had one (while attending a costly private college) who encouraged her to follow a new path that would have given her a degree but not anything else. Being as we were all burdened with debt, and college is not free, this was not encouraged by us. Perhaps at some point our country will see the value in continued education that does not leave the student and family in permanent debt.
That's part of the goal, as well. Let's limit how much money you'll spend here on campus so that you can go out and make money to pay off this horrible debt.
I wish I'd had this kind of guidance in library school!
I have a son in his senior yer of high school.
But that's not the only reason I've been thinking more and more about the tightness of the requirements we contemporary USians impose on pretty much everyone, and how pointillistically people are evaluated. It's a system that demands wildly compulsive ticking of list items, and it seems to me to make nearly everyone assume some dysfunction label when their performances Don't Measure Up.
It's a Screwtape bureaucracy in which even factotums are having their entrails gnawed as they gnaw the entrails of those under their supervision.
Thank you for helping students through such systems! But the systems seem to me to have got much tighter, not only in schools. And self-care products and disciplines burgeon as we insist that valid humans can Always adjust to artificially created systems, as the screws tighten.
This is an entire world, right here. How much DOES a student need a math course? I would suggest, if they're going into journalism, or the real world, they need that class. Math matters. Science matters, and not just for non-science majors. I hope that teachers at the front of classes of a lot of non-majors make it their business to make that class important and interesting for all. I love having criminal justice majors in my classes (it does happen) and I try to help them leave with a new love of communication law, the media, and journalism. But yes. The whole idea of self-care when the system is gamed against that is really ridiculous.
I definitely wasn't thinking about distributional requirements, which I strongly favor as long as they've got some flex.* They are, in my view, invitations to liberation for students raised To Be a Dentist/Doctor/Lawyer/Scientist/whatever, and invitations to expanded understanding for students who have shunned maths and sciences.
I was thinking about firehose style education, and pointillistic inflexible grading, more than anything else.
* As a college instructor, I argued against distributional requirements motivated by some elysian vision of The Well-Rounded Humanist Scholar-- one actually met by no oe I've ever known. And those motivated substantially as supports to particular departments.
Math matters. And I'm not just saying that as an undergraduate math major. If you can master calculus, even one semester of it, then you can teach yourself whatever other math you may need to know to get through life. How mortgages work, for example.
Amen. Math makes sense out of the world.
I appreciate this. My options were a shirt factory, and the local library. I'd have loved that second job but wouldn't have been able to support a family. For me, higher education made all the difference.
Connecticut has an excellent vocational high school system, and a couple for adults, and my understanding is that all are full with waiting lists.
Over the past few years we’ve been lucky enough to replace our retiring electrician, plumber and hvac person with 20/30 somethings all trained in the state vocational system. Two of them took over the business from their fathers who I’ve known most of my life so I know a little more about them then you might normally. All of them have good lives, solid income, plenty of work and varied interests that extend beyond their work. Interests that might lead some people to wrongly (and perhaps snobbishly) assume they had a college education. So yeah, there’s other ways to do life.
Absolutely. If someone shows an aptitude for anything like this, then this is a good path for them.