Sometimes, I have pity on my students and extend deadlines. I remember feeling unprepared to do college level writing when I was in college. Although I prepare them fully to do the work they have to complete in the course, I know I am competing with a myriad of educational deficits that they have accumulated over the years in their primary education. This is not to say that I blame their teachers...it is a complicated web in primary education: parents, peer pressure, life pressure, neglect, lazy students, lazy teachers, apathetic administrators, an onslaught of standardized tests or evaluations (of students and teachers). But, oftentimes, there is no real learning going on. I was only in that sphere of education briefly, but I realized it wasn't for me.
Nevertheless, that is the foundation that ALL students come to college with and the same foundation that professors have to build on OR overcome!
Yesterday, I chose to go back and REBUILD that foundation, and once it was in place I informed my students that "I will not be taking papers up today." I went on to tell them that I wanted them to be successful students and without a proper understanding of the skills they need to write/construct an argument/supplement their opinions with adequate evidence and acknowledge ETHICALLY said information (ESPECIALLY IN A RESEARCH PAPER) they would surely fail OR PLAGIARIZE their papers. (plagiarism is a rampant problem in education when it comes to writing, but that is for another blog post).
In short, several students exhorted, "I LOVE YOU! YOU ARE THE BEST TEACHER EVER!" I know this was said with a mixture of relief and thankfulness on their part, but I was happy to see that many of them cared enough want to do better.
It's nice to know that my students care and even nicer to know that they really appreciate my desire to raise the bar and push them to get a "real education" (which 5 students came up to me after class and confirmed).
Reporting from the Trenches...
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