Me and the Flunkies

So, today one of the main points in my life skills class was trying to get my students to understand that it doesn't take much work to be a C student. It definitely doesn't take much work to be a C student at CMU-- show up to class and do the work, and you'll probably pass. I had several separate points related to this one typed out on a sheet of notes I was going to put on the visualizer-- but, sometime between discussing the course schedule, passing out corrected papers, collecting extra credit ones, and distributing a handout, I lost my notes.

Believe it: my students thought this was really funny. They were like, "For every second it takes you to find your notes, you have to let us out of class one minute early." And then another student was like: "You appear unprepared. You're going to get a '0' in my gradebook for today." A more sympathetic student finally said: "Oh, well, you're just gonna have to wing it." My reply: "That's OK, I have some of it commited to memory."

We went on to have a fairly productive discussion in spite of the fact I'd lost my notes. They asked me what grades I got in college. I said I graduated CMU with a 3.3 GPA, which is definitely well above the required 2.0, but still nowhere near close to even an A- average. And my students said: "What! They let you teach college with that GPA?" "Then again, you do teach the fuck-ups." My reply: "You said that, not me. I think that all of you are capable of earning at least a 2.0, and probably more, you just have to want it and adopt the behaviors that will allow you to achieve that."

Am I realistic about the limitations of the kind of student I teach? Yes. Many of them are dull, unable to reason clearly or solve problems, and can't make wise choices in school or in life. However, I teach my class like I believe they CAN do those things, because they need to feel like someone thinks they can. When they do something really stupid, and tell me about it, I say stuff like, "Well, now that you look back on it, what would've been a better way to handle that situation?" Sometimes they give decent answers. Sometimes they don't, but at least they had to stop to consider the question.