Bloody Apathy!
I'm reminded of an ACT Math course I took during my senior year of high school. A student had asked how the concepts taught could possibly help him in his real life. The teacher then proceeded to give the typical answer: it'll help him get into college, which will then help him get a much better and higher paying job. I'm afraid I often over analyze things, but this experience certainly has made me consider education in a new light.
The first thing that it taught me was that I am, as I was then, truly in charge of my own education. That seems to be one of the biggest promoters of apathy: the thought, subconcious though it might seem to many, that one's educational pursuits are actually there simply to please a parent, a teacher, a girlfriend, etc.
Another large problem I see is that many students lack the proper perspective on their individual work, as well as their education at large. I see many students studying simply to survive a test so they can start studying for the next one.
Now, as a college student student I see quite a bit less apathy, to great degree I'd imagine, because college isn't free (a fact we are all far too aware of unfortunately). But still I see traces of it lingering, which materialize in some different ways.
Certainly students' papers will be a large indicator of the health of apathy on campus. And when I'm faced with an apathetic student I'd imagine it will be a challenge for me to hide my frustrations. However, I would hope that my approach would be kind, and assertive. I would probably use phrases like, "in writing everything is a choice," or, "when we write we create something that's been thrown at the Universe. It'll have to come back in some way at some time."
But other than these pep phrases I'll, hopefully, be able to create in the student a pride in his/her work, which might, given the proper stimuli, germinate into a true desire to succeed. A desire, which comes from personal motivation, and not from any of the multiplicity of foreign pressures that are placed upon all of us to produce results without true conviction.
The first thing that it taught me was that I am, as I was then, truly in charge of my own education. That seems to be one of the biggest promoters of apathy: the thought, subconcious though it might seem to many, that one's educational pursuits are actually there simply to please a parent, a teacher, a girlfriend, etc.
Another large problem I see is that many students lack the proper perspective on their individual work, as well as their education at large. I see many students studying simply to survive a test so they can start studying for the next one.
Now, as a college student student I see quite a bit less apathy, to great degree I'd imagine, because college isn't free (a fact we are all far too aware of unfortunately). But still I see traces of it lingering, which materialize in some different ways.
Certainly students' papers will be a large indicator of the health of apathy on campus. And when I'm faced with an apathetic student I'd imagine it will be a challenge for me to hide my frustrations. However, I would hope that my approach would be kind, and assertive. I would probably use phrases like, "in writing everything is a choice," or, "when we write we create something that's been thrown at the Universe. It'll have to come back in some way at some time."
But other than these pep phrases I'll, hopefully, be able to create in the student a pride in his/her work, which might, given the proper stimuli, germinate into a true desire to succeed. A desire, which comes from personal motivation, and not from any of the multiplicity of foreign pressures that are placed upon all of us to produce results without true conviction.
posted by Anonymous at 11:55 AM
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