Dour. If I had to use one word to describe my students, that would be it. Maybe I’ve already blogged about this. I can’t remember. But it bears repeating. On more than one occasion, I have looked out at a room full of students and yelled, “Why are you so DOUR? You have EVERYTHING!” IContinueContinue reading “Why are my students so DOUR?”
Category Archives: Students
Work Hard, Play Hard?
Many students at elite colleges and universities in the United States adhere to the motto, “Work Hard, Play Hard.” I tell my students applying this motto to higher education creates a false dichotomy between work and play. I insist that my courses will require them to work, to be sure, but that we will haveContinueContinue reading “Work Hard, Play Hard?”
No Poor Folks at Wake Forest
According to the Chronicle of Higher Education, of the 75 wealthiest private universities in the United States (those with endowments of $500 million or more), Wake Forest University ranks 74th (second to last) in the proportion of undergraduates who receive Pell Grants. This is a rough measure of the proportion of students who are lowContinueContinue reading “No Poor Folks at Wake Forest”
No reading, bad writing
Everyone I know who is a good writer is also a good reader. A recent article in the Chronicle of Higher Education, then, helps to explain why so many of the students I teach are (to put it bluntly) bad writers. The article reports on a study released by the National Endowment for the ArtsContinueContinue reading “No reading, bad writing”
Spare Prose PLEASE!!!
Somewhere along the way, probably in high school, college students learn that “good” writing means long sentences and big words. But in my experience, most students don’t have the linguistic dexterity to pull this off. It just becomes an overwrought jumble of words and punctuation. Not that I can do much better myself, but IContinueContinue reading “Spare Prose PLEASE!!!”
What We’re Selling, What They’re Buying
Had a conversation with a good colleague the other day who marveled at the fact that the knowledge we are trying to “sell” students in class is the only commodity that people willingly shortchange themselves on. That is, most students pay full price for their courses but want to do as little as possible inContinueContinue reading “What We’re Selling, What They’re Buying”
What the teacher learned
I was reminded the other day at a teaching seminar of this truism: Students may not remember the substance of what you teach, but they will remember how you made them feel. Now, I’m no proponent of “emotivism” as a moral philosophy, but I do know that the professors who took the time to makeContinueContinue reading “What the teacher learned”
I’m Back!
I guess I took the summer off. I didn’t mean to, but teaching summer school wiped out 8 weeks, then I had 4 weeks to do 12 weeks worth of other work. A couple of brief points by way of getting back into things: 1. I (heart) Montreal. Spent a week up there with myContinueContinue reading “I’m Back!”
College Students and Whatever
“Senator Hillary Clinton is being criticized because she recently called today’s college kids lazy and uninformed. A spokesperson for college kids said, ‘Whatever, lady from TV.” –Conan O’Brien
To the Class of 2006
On the occasion of graduation, an excerpt from Alan Lightman’s novel, Reunion (in which the narrator attends his 30th college graduation reunion): “Young people explode with their discovery of the world and the newness of life. They sleep and sleep in their tiny cocoons, and suddenly one day, perhaps in one moment, as in theContinueContinue reading “To the Class of 2006”