13 November 2006
Teachers
I understand that it's partly a reaction to the structuralized violence of grading perpetrated on students by our system of education, but it's pretty sad that the response seems to be the open denigration of teachers, to the point where many are ready to quit the profession. The last line says it all -- "they're just teachers." As if low wages, exhausting work, and cheap administrators weren't tough enough? I complained about some teachers growing up, but this is sinking to a new low, because it's done in a public forum with the knowledge that the person you are mocking, by name, can read what's being said. If I weren't such a coddled lightweight I'd be teaching underprivileged public school kids as opposed to entitled middle-class white kids. There's only so much of a social justice mission you can have when you're teaching at a college, the land of the privileged. So whether they do their jobs perfectly all the time I have nothing but the utmost respect for what real teachers do every day. This is just sad.
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4 comments:
Agreed. Mike was the target of some of this stuff his first year teaching. First year! Let's see some of these little knobs trying to teach and see how *they* fare. Teaching is hard, especially in public schools. It's easy to see why teachers become apathetic, or in this case, actively ticked off.
By the way, myspace.com has a similar thing you can do with your professors. Some of the comments are truly rude, although most are typical. There are a lot of positive comments, though too.
This attitude doesn't surprise me. Children and young college students think that education - like all other things - is a commodity to consume. Therefore, teachers are supposed to entertain and make consuming (education) fun. I think this is an assumption that spans all classes. (For some dismal stories that back up my assessment you could read My Freshman Year by Rebekah Nathan, but be warned, it is not a pretty picture of public university students.)
Middle- and upper-class students are different from "middle-class" students (which is the new way we say working-class and working poor in the US) because they expect education - like all consumables - to come easy to them. Few have any experience actually working hard at something because frankly, it is just that - too hard. These are the little "darlings" we (might) see in class weekly and then in our office if a D effort does not generate a B+ paper.
Wheh. I am so glad that I found my soapbox!
Right on, ladies! And soapbox away, Veta. It's almost like McKenzie in here! It's really the commodification that gets to me more than anything else, because I (and as you said, most of the actual working poor or working-class students that occasionally get lucky enough to get to college) did NOT grow up with the idea that I would automatically go to college, let alone law school or graduate school. Or that I was guaranteed As and Bs when I got there. So I don't have much patience for entitlement. But I don't even mind so much the ratemyprofessors.com stuff ("hot or not?" are you kidding? that's just lame) because professors are privileged enough that they should be able to take it. It's kicking underpaid school teachers who are already treated poorly that really ticks me off.
It's all part of a system that sees success/deservingness of respect in terms of how much money you make (and, according to my LSAT students, how much harm you do -- the more power you have to screw others over, the more successful you are). Yeah.
Geez. and my mom asks me why I'm so critical of society in the states. Selfishness is the order of the day, whether in feeling entitled to what YOU can do to screw people over, feeling like YOU are the most important person around (self-esteem movement? say what? don't pat people on the back for work they don't do!), just a lack of respect really anything. We don't help students build this by making them wear large wooden signs so that they can go to the bathroom, either. How humiliating.
I was thinking about why the Daily Show/Colbert Report are so funny and why they're so popular - they point out all of the little absurdities the pop up everywhere, but they also tap into a feeling that the people we're supposed to respect are a bunch of idiots. As much as I love the shows, it's sad that the news many American young people trust the most is a satirical comedy show. Maybe people feel that looking out for number one is justifiable because it seems that NO one actually lives with integrity anymore. Even if there are people who do and work hard, they end up getting treated with no respect just like everyone else.
End of rant. :)
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