{"id":6832,"date":"2009-02-24T22:53:08","date_gmt":"2009-02-25T06:12:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.amptoons.com\/blog\/?p=6832"},"modified":"2009-02-24T22:53:08","modified_gmt":"2009-02-25T06:12:56","slug":"edu-dump","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/?p=6832","title":{"rendered":"Edu-Dump"},"content":{"rendered":"

From the New York Times<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Prof. Marshall Grossman has come to expect complaints whenever he returns graded papers in his English classes at the University of Maryland.<\/p>\n

\u201cMany students come in with the conviction that they\u2019ve worked hard and deserve a higher mark,\u201d Professor Grossman said. \u201cSome assert that they have never gotten a grade as low as this before.\u201d<\/p>\n

He attributes those complaints to his students\u2019 sense of entitlement.<\/p>\n

\u201cI tell my classes that if they just do what they are supposed to do and meet the standard requirements, that they will earn a C,\u201d he said. \u201cThat is the default grade. They see the default grade as an A.\u201d<\/p>\n

A recent study by researchers at the University of California, Irvine, found that a third of students surveyed said that they expected B\u2019s just for attending lectures, and 40 percent said they deserved a B for completing the required reading.<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

James Hogge, associate dean of the Peabody School of Education at Vanderbilt University, said: \u201cStudents often confuse the level of effort with the quality of work. There is a mentality in students that \u2018if I work hard, I deserve a high grade.\u2019 \u201c<\/p>\n

In line with Dean Hogge\u2019s observation are Professor Greenberger\u2019s test results. Nearly two-thirds of the students surveyed said that if they explained to a professor that they were trying hard, that should be taken into account in their grade.<\/p>\n

Jason Greenwood, a senior kinesiology major at the University of Maryland echoed that view.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think putting in a lot of effort should merit a high grade,\u201d Mr. Greenwood said. \u201cWhat else is there really than the effort that you put in?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you put in all the effort you have and get a C, what is the point?\u201d he added. \u201cIf someone goes to every class and reads every chapter in the book and does everything the teacher asks of them and more, then they should be getting an A like their effort deserves. If your maximum effort can only be average in a teacher\u2019s mind, then something is wrong.\u201d <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

What else is there really than the effort you put in? Well… you know, there’s the finished product. The one thing that I, the educator, actually see? But that’s inconsequential, right?<\/p>\n

Here’s the bad news – I originally wrote a pretty detailed response to this article, including both my outraged reaction as an adjunct who has experienced this sort of behavior, and a more thoughtful response on how race and gender play into student entitlement. But I found I couldn’t write it without divulging details about past jobs. So no commentary for you!<\/p>\n

Instead, here’s an education-themed tab dump (it’s been a fertile week at NYT):<\/p>\n

The humanities continue to have to justify their existence to college administrators.<\/a> The best justification, in my opinion: the humanities explore what it means to be a human being. It’s true that you don’t need<\/em> to go to college to do that, but college would be a pretty barren place without it.<\/p>\n

18 students have been suspended from NYU following a sit-in<\/a>. The students were demanding, among other things, an annual reporting of the university’s operating budget and the right of TAs to organize. Oh, the horror.<\/p>\n

Speaking of university labor and operating budgets, coaches, star faculty members, and administrators can make millions of dollars a year<\/a> while adjuncts and TAs – you know, the people doing the actual teaching? – subsist on salaries as low as $4,000. (That last part’s not in the article – it’s the salary I received my first year as a TA, after tuition was deducted.)<\/p>\n

(Cross-posted at Modern Mitzvot<\/a><\/em>.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From the New York Times: Prof. Marshall Grossman has come to expect complaints whenever he returns graded papers in his English classes at the University of Maryland. \u201cMany students come in with the conviction that they\u2019ve worked hard and deserve … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[106,26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6832","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-class-poverty-labor-related-issues","category-education"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6832","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6832"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6832\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6832"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6832"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6832"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}