Thursday, October 22, 2009

Just a Warning - I'm Getting on my Soapbox

I’ll tell you what amazes me about students, especially adult students. When a professor specifically gives you a handout stating how he wants a project in his class to be done, he expects that your project will conform to the handout. Most adult students do not seem to understand this concept. On more than one occasion, I have heard students come into class the day a project is due and flippantly say something along the lines that they just didn’t have enough time to finish the project, and the professor will just have to give them more time. What makes anyone think that they are exempt from the rules? What make anyone think that a professor is required to bend the rules just for them? When an assignment tells them to do something that they don’t agree with such as print their name on every page, why do they baulk? Why do they make the superior decision that their name shouldn’t have to be printed on every page. It costs them no time, no money, no nothing to do it. So, do it!! Why do students think that they have the right to complain about a teacher or a grade that they got in the class when the real problem is that they lack the humility to fall under the authority of the professor and follow simple clear-cut directions? I've been asked on several occassions how exactly I get the grades that I do. Well, 40% of it it simply following directions.