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rynlingAlthough I strongly believe in the value of education, I hate how unapologetically elitist the American university system is, and one of my goals as a professor is to resist and undermine this ideology.
This is one of the main reasons I put a lot of energy into a commitment to give every single student in every single one of my classes a grade in the "A" range. The way I see it, different students have different strengths and talents; and, as a professor, it's my job to figure out what these strengths and talents are and reward them instead of punishing people for failing to meet some sort of arbitrary, idealized standard. I want my students to feel excited about reading and thinking and learning, and I want them to get a sense of accomplishment and empowerment from my classes.
This isn't always easy, but I've gotten much better at it. I managed to pull off giving every student an "A" last semester, and I think - based on the way things are looking - I can probably pull it off this semester as well.
One of my life goals (and I understand how small and unimportant I am, so I know this is ambitious) is to make quality higher education at least a little more accessible to anyone who's interested in pursuing it at any level and for any length of time. In order to make college-level material more accessible, I think you have to account for a range of diversity in your students, their learning styles, and their goals, and you also have to respect their limited levels of time and energy.
I think it's important to make people feel heard, validated, and appreciated. And let's be real, given the state of higher education at the moment, it's also important that students feel like they're actually getting something in return for the massive amount of money they're borrowing. If I skew the university's numbers and averages by accommodating and supporting my students, so be it.
This is one of the main reasons I put a lot of energy into a commitment to give every single student in every single one of my classes a grade in the "A" range. The way I see it, different students have different strengths and talents; and, as a professor, it's my job to figure out what these strengths and talents are and reward them instead of punishing people for failing to meet some sort of arbitrary, idealized standard. I want my students to feel excited about reading and thinking and learning, and I want them to get a sense of accomplishment and empowerment from my classes.
This isn't always easy, but I've gotten much better at it. I managed to pull off giving every student an "A" last semester, and I think - based on the way things are looking - I can probably pull it off this semester as well.
One of my life goals (and I understand how small and unimportant I am, so I know this is ambitious) is to make quality higher education at least a little more accessible to anyone who's interested in pursuing it at any level and for any length of time. In order to make college-level material more accessible, I think you have to account for a range of diversity in your students, their learning styles, and their goals, and you also have to respect their limited levels of time and energy.
I think it's important to make people feel heard, validated, and appreciated. And let's be real, given the state of higher education at the moment, it's also important that students feel like they're actually getting something in return for the massive amount of money they're borrowing. If I skew the university's numbers and averages by accommodating and supporting my students, so be it.
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Date: 2019-05-01 02:04 pm (UTC)but also go us for being badass and doing the thing we thought we were too stupid to learn *FISTBUMP*My boyfriend was an English major and always told me I was better off not taking college-level writing classes for that exact reason. So much rage. I will help you with concocting this acid fire.
no subject
Date: 2019-05-01 11:23 pm (UTC)I just. I get that teaching mechanics of writing can be simpler if everyone's working in the same sandbox, right, and what works in genre A will not go over well with the genre contract in genre B. These things are true. But that wasn't what they said was their reasoning; they said or implied (depending on levels of social competence) that genre fiction (by which we mean other genres, never forgetting that litfic IS ACTUALLY A FUCKING GENRE JUST LIKE THE ONES YOU DENIGRATE) was lesser.
Listen. I know a lot of people think it's really easy to write a romance novel, and I guess on some level it is--two people meet, they get pants feelings and emotions, they act on them, somebody fucks up, apologies and groveling are had and then the pants feelings ride off into the sunset. It's a pretty simple formula. But doing it well? That takes a lot of skill. Arguably it takes more skill to execute a genre well because you don't have the luxury of bucking convention for shock value or originality. But this is my soapbox and I've been screaming long enough, so I'm gonna just. You know. Not, now.
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Date: 2019-05-03 12:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-05-04 02:06 pm (UTC)THIS IS SO TRUE. THIS IS SO TRUE AND PEOPLE SHOULD NEVER STOP SAYING IT.
no subject
Date: 2019-05-09 12:41 am (UTC)