Stupid students who dont know they are stupid

[a_smith]

I really really am [expletive] tired of dealing with deadweight in a specific class. I normally do not mind. It happens. I can coach almost anyone who puts in effort through the most difficult of material. I am really really good at my job. I like discussion and I can work with almost anyone to understand my subject matter.

This specific class is a senior level required course. These are students that are going to graduate in a few months.

5 of the students are rock star awesome. Another 10 are like noble gases-they are kind of nice in theory but they don't
react, and well, they are inert.

And OH MY [expletive] GOD SHOOT ME NOW are the others.
They cannot read relatively simple texts. They don't complete simple assignments. They have no concepts of what an argument is; the whine over being asked to do work; they don't understand simple concepts; and I know that the [expletive] are going to pull the class down into their academic cesspool because I will get my ass chewed out if I fail 50% of the class.

OH and what makes matters worse, when I politely decline to answer questions that would have been moronic at the freshman level and offer to meet with the deadweight outside of class, one of the dead weight society is insistent that I take time to answer her moronic question and guess what happened. I made it clear to everyone in the class (well ok, only the 5 that are capable of cogent thought) in a simple one sentence refutation of her stupid idea that this is moronic and something that we need spend no more time on. It was refuted 2500 years ago, and is something that we spend 1 minute on a freshman level class and it isn't a big deal as it is false. I move on.

She does a Horshack impression in the front row rocking back and forth. She interrupts me multiple times to have her question met. I decline because she does not ask relevant questions, doesn't accept answers that disagree with her moronic worldview, and I cannot lose the rest of the class to spend more time on her and her fellow deadweighters. For the first time 20 years teaching I ask for a student to be respectful of my position and the rest of the class, that I would be delighted to answer her questions outside of class. She refuses, continues to interrupt me. I finally ask her to leave. She stood up and said when she gets to Harvard law she will come back and sue me. WTF?

I have never ever asked a student to leave. I have never been threatened with a lawsuit.

This student was one of the worst, but her and the other dead weight have no concept that they are really incapable of doing the work necessary to earn a BA. They are so pathetically bad at critical thinking, critical reading, and expressing their thoughts coherently that I cannot imagine them doing anything other than manual labor.

I am skilled enough in the classroom that I can deal with them, but it is really hard to work with students who have no idea that they are stupid. If they are aware of their deficiencies I can help, but being dumb and not knowing it is brutal.

Then what kills me is that I know that these dead weighters have gotten here because my colleagues have just passed them along and never pushed them.

[Cronos]

I'm guessing you teach at the high school level? What's the class?

[cpebbles]

More importantly, are we going to hear on Fox News all week about how you're attacking this poor girl for her religious views?

[Maclowery]

Bummer. My father is a retired professor at a community college, still teaching a class a week because he still loves it. He was telling me on my visit home that this current class has the worst crop of students he's ever taught. He was showing me some pretty heavy despair - I listened to him make an official report to the dean over the phone.

It was very hard on him to even admit to not being able to make progress with several of the students. I hope you can find a solution, a_smith. It's gotta be really stressful right now. Good luck.

[a_smith]

I'm guessing you teach at the high school level? What's the class?

high school, ha. i could deal with it then and you should tell me to just suck it up as the kids are still developing cognitively. Nope I teach at a university. Without revealing too much I teach a discipline that focuses on logic, critical thinking and and ends in ___osophy. It is an applied class with some theory. Not too much because that doesn't work with the students at my school.

More importantly, are we going to hear on Fox News all week about how you're attacking this poor girl for her religious views?

I can only hope. I would love a few picketers. Maybe we could get the Westboro Babtist Church to come by and picket me. I could see the signs ...."God hates [expletive], we hate [expletive], we hate this professor for saying that logic is important, thus God hates this professor"

I was rooting for NPR, but Fox news will do in a pinch.

That said, it has never gone to the level of the local news. I wouldn't all be shocked if I might get a call from one of her helicopter parents for being such a meany to their perfect daughter (I get this once a semester). And it happens with some regularity that students complain about faculty to the President of the Uni.

[docellis]

that sounds really brutal. i might be way off base, but it seems like teens and early 20 somethings seem to be more vocal than ever about not knowing anything.

but i bet every generation thinks that about the previous one.

the student sounds willfully and antagonizingly ignorant.

[Cronos]

Nope I teach at a university. Without revealing too much I teach a discipline that focuses on logic, critical thinking and and ends in ___osophy. It is an applied class with some theory. Not too much because that doesn't work with the students at my school.

The only ___osophy class I ever took at the university level had very little to do with logic and critical thinking, actually, and was more centered around the abstract and rational vs irrational, reality vs varying perspective, etc.

It's interesting that your institution would offer such a class at the senior level as a requirement when they're about to graduate, practically inviting senior-itis to occur in a class that will by its very nature not interest certain types of students. Putting it at the freshmen level (IMO) would allow for far more interesting discussion and at least engage those who are intrigued and passionate about the ideas of it before the realities of college-life dragging those interests and passions down to the point where they just don't really care and just want to graduate.

You said you've taught freshmen this course. Did that tend to go any better?

[slide_into_first]

If your faculty and administrators don't back you, it will be hard to stop that kind of disruptive activity. That's my premise.

[Freed Roger]

Stupid and proud of it. Just the way we like em. .. Stupid little morons that buy lots of [expletive].

But why do you need an education? Look at all those successful people who didn't finish college- Steve Jobs, Steven Spielberg, Snooki, Scott Walker

I feel for teachers these days.

[a_smith]

Nope I teach at a university. Without revealing too much I teach a discipline that focuses on logic, critical thinking and and ends in ___osophy. It is an applied class with some theory. Not too much because that doesn't work with the students at my school.

The only ___osophy class I ever took at the university level had very little to do with logic and critical thinking, actually, and was more centered around the abstract and rational vs irrational, reality vs varying perspective, etc.

It's interesting that your institution would offer such a class at the senior level as a requirement when they're about to graduate, practically inviting senior-itis to occur in a class that will by its very nature not interest certain types of students. Putting it at the freshmen level (IMO) would allow for far more interesting discussion and at least engage those who are intrigued and passionate about the ideas of it before the realities of college-life dragging those interests and passions down to the point where they just don't really care and just want to graduate.

You said you've taught freshmen this course. Did that tend to go any better?

thanks for the thoughts and listening to the rants of a grumpy professor

After the frustration of teaching people who should not be in a university has passed, it is fun to try to think about ways to not lose the class.

Chronos your __sophy class would have used logic and critical thinking to address all of those things. (at least I hope it did and that description makes is sound dull enough to put me to sleep, which many ___sophy classes are) but damn this class is not dull. it is [expletive] sexy, fantastic material that is not your boring old metaphysical debates about how many angels can dance on a pin.

Some of this is that these students, many of whom I had as freshman in the intro class many moons ago, have never improved their thinking so that they could hope to do better than the D they earned in the intro class. Now they are overwhelmed in a class that they have no business being in, but they are here and I have to try to coax enough work out of them to justify a C.

I am also frustrated that my institution doesn't really help these students and these students are in a discipline that at my school rewards students for just sitting and taking notes. Many of them are seniors and have never done more than multiple choice tests in their field

I cannot bring up the last part of the rant to others because that indicts the teaching of my colleagues who are prime examples of why tenure should not be given to those who will in the future 'mail it in'

So I need to vent and get out my frustrations so that I don't take it out on my students, most of whom I genuinely like and appreciate.

When does spring training start....l.