Prior to entering the teaching side of academia, I spent a looooong time as a student. We (students) would have deep, "enlightened" conversations about how the professors were getting stale and inflexible compared to "a few years ago". (Yes, it's a lot of quotes already, but I haven't mastered the art of conveying sarcasm via blog without using quotes.) Now, on the other side, I see that my old student-self was partially right. Professors do change over time. But we do it in response to the increased immaturity of a few chosen students. These bad apples, if you will, force us to make syllabi 7 pages long just to cover every possible academic contingency. Truly, I just added a full page of consequences for various academic dishonesty/fraud possibilities in response to the shenanigans I've witnessed this past semester.
I refuse to become bitter, I love teaching just as much as ever. But I am rapidly losing my former naivete. In response to my former student-self, I say I am not getting "inflexible". I am getting wiser.
Yep, forget that whole "It takes a village to raise a child" crap. Hillary was misquoted! It actually "takes a cudgel"!
Sunday, April 26, 2009
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