Students, not Teachers, Fail Themselves

More crazy emails from students.  This time it was fairly simple: "Thanks for the F."

No thanks needed.  I didn't give you that F.  You won that F all by yourself.  I merely recognized your accomplishments (or lack of).

Students like to give the impression that poor grades are a reflection of a mean teacher rather than a poor student, but that fact is it is pretty much impossible for dedicated student to fail my class.  Certainly not every earnest student will get an A, but they should pass.  They should even pass relatively well.

But it does require work, and the idea that teachers are big meanies because they expect actual work is a growing concern.  "Your So-Called Education" in the New York Times paint a grim picture of diminishing expectations - and results - in US college education.

So, yes, you should show up regularly, read assigned materials, participate in class, bring required materials, put time and thought into papers, not cheat off the Internet, and study your brains out for exams.  And many students do...and they get good grades, and they actually learn stuff. 

Part of the problem, I think, is that students too often think of college as a source of grades and a diploma rather than as a source for knowledge.  This is particularly the case for classes like mine (history and humanities) which aren't directly applicable to most students' career paths.  You don't need to know who painted the Sistine Chapel in order to be a successful biochemist.  So all students are looking for is a grade.

I am not here to provide a grade.  I am here to teach.  My students will leave my class knowing more than when they went in.  The grade just reflects how well they accomplished garnering new knowledge.

Angry students seem to universally think teachers enjoy failing students.  We don't.  I hate failing students, because it means they didn't learn anything, and I don't like that, even if it's not my fault.  So why do it?  (And I have been asked that)  Accountability.  A good grade is the reward for learning stuff.  Giving a reward for nothing merely continues this cycle of entitlement that certain students suffer, encouraging the notion that hard work really isn't necessary.

Luckily, this opinion isn't universal.  I periodically get compliments from students about how much stuff they learn in my class, or how I made the material accessible and fun so they could more easily learn.  I've repeatedly gotten the comment on my reviews from students that I am "hard but fair" and "tough, but I learned a lot."  I take that to mean I'm doing it right.

I don't believe in the easy A.  If A's are easy, the bar is set far too low.  I state it right on my syllabus: A's represent superior work, not average work.

My favorite teacher in undergrad was also the hardest grader I've ever had.  Even though he taught my specialty (Medieval European history), I sweated bullets in his classes.  An A was never a guarantee.  But I learned tons of information - information that has stayed with me over they years, rather than information that fades five minutes after the exam.  I also could appreciate an A as a real accomplishment, and I learned the value of hard work.

Life expects you to do hard work.  I'm not being overly demanding on this point.