Time for some changes

[James R. Coplin]

I can jump on this as part of my PhD training means I teach classes at
university (I do late Chinese Imperial History with a focus on urban history
and global trade networks - mainly tea).  I left an executive position in
technology to go back to school, retrain, and learn Chinese in my
mid-thirties so that I could teach.  Teaching appeals to me far more than
research and once my PhD is done, my mentor at a small private college where
I did my undergrad work is waiting to retire until I am done so I can have a
shot at his job.  Which I think would be ideal and bordering on magic.
There few things more rewarding than being a teacher but there is also few
things more frustrating and infuriating than being a teacher.  Most of this
is a bit of a rant about the problems I see I the American system and the
things I love will get little mention.  Suffice it to say, I love more than
I hate it but there dark spots.  I could also talk some about the Chinese
system but I know nothing about the rest of the world and the educational
experiences there.  Mainly, I love teaching.  My students can enrich and
inspire me in so many ways that I am grateful that it is what I do with my
life and how I have chosen to spend the rest of my life. However,  I
vacillate wildly between loving my students and imagining hacking them bits
with some stereotypical horror film implement...  

The downside (at least in the states) stems from a growing sense of
entitlement that is tightly tied to generational politics.  I know many
idealize the hippies but for me, they are the most selfish, pretentious, and
power hunger generation ever spawned in the United States and I lay most of
our ills directly at their grasping greedy feet.  Their children are no
better and that is who is largely in my classes.  I do however see some
signs of this changing.  Our friends with younger children certainly don't
share nearly as much as an entitlement and their children seem generally
better behaved, independent, and inquisitive than most of my students.  The
70s saw a radical rethink of education and teaching which has been dogma
ever since and is only now changing.  The 70s gave us this idea that no one
should fail, everything should be team/group based, and severely lessened
individual responsibility on the student.  This is the type of thinking that
launched the idea of "styles" of learning so I have to put up with
orientations from the university and students telling me their "style" of
learning is incompatible with lecture, recitation, etc.  Fortunately,
several new studies out (some of the first to actually attempt to quantify
this theory) have shown that this is complete crap.  Unfortunately, it will
take years to undue the institutional inertia built up around this and other
bad educational theories from the 70s.  

Related to this, Vietnam had a massive impact on student culture in the US.
As college was a safe haven against the draft (at least for a while)
professors were reluctant to fail students out of classes as this meant
likely enlistment.  There has been a continued and regular inflation in
grades ever since.  While initially gradual, it has escalated rapidly in the
recent two decades.  When I was in college in the late 80s (at the same
institution where I currently teach and do my PhD research) a "C" was a
satisfactory, basic grade.  If you showed up, did the reading, did the
assignments, were basically right in your thinking, and participated in
class, this is what you got.  Now, my students get completely pissed off if
they get anything less than a B regardless of their work.  They really think
that if they just show up that earns them a B.  They could miss most of the
homework, do none of the readings, participate rarely, and perform poorly on
tests and still they expect a B.  I spend countless hours with students
gnashing their teeth and calling me all sorts of names because I do not
oblige them in this thinking.

James R. Coplin
郭杰明

-----Original Message-----
From: music-bar-bounces at lists.music-bar.org [mailto:music-bar-bounces at lists.
music-bar.org] On Behalf Of punkdISCO
Sent: Wednesday, September 22, 2010 1:32 PM
To: 'Music-bar'
Subject: RE: Time for some changes

Sounds cool, Micke.  What don't you like about being a teacher?  I am always
very envious of teachers; maybe I romanticise it too much but I imagine it
to be a lovely way of life..

But congrats!!

Paul
London
www.punkdisco.co.uk
Banned by YouTube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1EvlOpBe0xU
"thats mental! and rather fkin ace too! cheers! dick subhumans"

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