Done
I finished my second semester of school, after a long absence. I survived and survived well.
Here’s what I learned during the last few months, something that I reaffirmed from my previous assessment of students: Many students are wasting their time. And by wasting their time, they’re also wasting mine.
I don’t know whether they don’t care about grades, or if the grading is so lenient, but many of the students in my class were late or didn’t show up or turn in projects. One guy showed up to the final, but didn’t hand in his final project.
What’s the point? Where does the understanding end and the grading begin?
I continue to take school seriously, though I’m not going for a degree, and instead shoot for enrichment that may augment my work skills.
Because my final project didn’t function as planned, I did two final projects, and apparently, my instructor was happy enough that he gave me credit for both, which means I got an extra 40 points. Hurray! I wish that A++ would show up on our report cards, but alas …
I feel like I’m not getting enough out of my classes, though. They’re dragged down by uncommitted students or students who don’t get it. And throughout the whole class, I was having technical issues undoubtedly related to the fact that the computers (Macs!) are not all set up the same way, even though they should be. Rather than fix the computers mid-semester, I suppose they’re going to work on the issues during the summer. If they do at all.
I want to be somewhere these classes won’t take me. Or the classes I need to take are only taught at night. I’m frustrated but my hands are tied right now. I plan to take a Flash class in the fall, for now. But it’s not enough. It’s never enough.
I don’t know how old the crop of students are who were in your class, but it takes awhile for the high school lackadaisical attitude to wear off. And sometimes it never does. I don’t understand it either, but it’s an age thing. Our teenage foster son is much the same way, and he hasn’t been coddled in life. His attitude towards everything that happens is, “It’ll all work out. Don’t worry.” He ruins his credit because he allows his bank account to become overdrawn–twice!–and his response is, “Don’t worry, it’ll all work out.”
Part of the problem is that they are so young, they really do believe that their choices don’t matter because “it’ll all work out” and after all, they’ve got plenty of time to fix their mistakes. Yeah, plenty of time.
Excellent point. I always thought I’d have plenty of time, too. Until I started doing math in my mid-20s. Suddenly, life didn’t seem to stretch out endlessly ahead of me anymore…