Q. How do you generally feel about your students?
A. I love most of them.
B. I tolerate them because I need a paycheck.
C. I want to build a huge, beautiful wall between me and the students.
D. I am puzzled by them.
E. I get depressed thinking that they are the future.
F. I spend as much time as possible with them outside of class (e.g., on my porch, at bars).
G. I've only married two of them so far.
H. Other:__________________________
Sometimes D, sometimes E, sometimes H (I get hopeful thinking that they are the future).
ReplyDeleteMostly I feel neutral to mildly positive, and so, it seems, do most of them -- nothing approaching some people's idea of inspiring teacher/inspired student, but it seems to get the job done. Also (another H), especially as I get older, a bit protective.
Which means that G makes me go "grrr," and F is troubling.
DeleteAnd there are definitely days when it feels like mostly B (yes, if I won the lottery, I would quit, and not only because it would only fair to turn my relatively-decent job over to someone else), and C also plays a role (I actually like teaching online, though I also like seeing those students for a face to face draft conference -- once a semester).
DeleteSomething between A and B with a bit of D.
ReplyDeleteOften D, sometimes E, sometimes B, though I'm willing to admit that B has more to do with my job having very little to do with my degree and is less about the students (most of the time).
ReplyDeleteA through E, and H: I am amused by them, and occasionally inspired by them. As long as they stay on their side of the wall.
ReplyDeleteUsed to always be A. But now D most days and occasionally E.
ReplyDeleteMostly A, but sometimes E. The latter is usually when they complain about their grade, knowing they don't deserve a higher grade but they really want one anyway.
ReplyDeleteH: I'm not sure I should be grateful or pissed off that they are so much smarter than the people I work for.
ReplyDeleteNone of the above? I feel good about the students who really enjoy learning, and who would be successful anywhere. I feel sorry for those who are only in college because a college degree is the new minimum requirement for a job.
ReplyDeleteThankfully I have no colleagues in category (G). Not in my department, anyway.
Some A, mostly D. The last time it was all A was a year that I taught in a prison program. Now those were some serious students
ReplyDeleteIt is Angry Archie! I am thunderstruck!
DeleteYeah. I was tweetering with Cal, and he told me about this place. I see Beaker has walked back his promise to abandon the identity. :)
DeleteI like most, love some (in an appropriate manner), while others are "meh." A very small handful I actively disliked. Overall I enjoy them....
ReplyDeleteFrom a post-modernist perspective, A, but there's probably a good deal of confirmation bias. I have hundreds of students, so the good ones stand out and grab my attention and the tolerable ones are quietly tolerable in the background.
ReplyDeleteIn 12 years I've had maybe a dozen who make Veruca Salt look like Winnie the Pooh, but out of the thousands, there are probably a hundred that if you said "Did you ever have so-and-so..." and I would blurt out "omg (s)he was my favorite student ever!". It's not rational, but that's what happens.
Beginning of semester: A
ReplyDeleteMid-semester: B
End of semester: C
Always: D
E, especially when they get caught fucking a sheep, on a day I'm wearing something made of wool. Eeeewwwwww...
ReplyDeleteA-B, D, H.
ReplyDeleteA-B instead of straight A because "love" is too strong. It's more like a continuum of indifferent to like, biased heavily towards like because many of them are earnest enough. But I can't discount that my feelings are informed by cognitive dissonance with some Stockholm Syndrome thrown in because I need a paycheck.
D because every day brings a fresh WTF, albeit nothing next to the WTF coming from supposed grownups running the asylum.
H is for hopeful. I am generally cautiously optimistic that my students will accomplish something of worth and find satisfaction. Many do. But not all do while still at my school.