Rate My Students.com
Rate My Professors.com, is a site in which students give their opinions concerning the performance of their professors. One complain that students regularly make is that, professors do not go over or cover the chapters. Well first of all, I wonder how students could tell whether or not professors are going over the chapters, because most of them do not even bother to read the course syllabus, less more read the chapters. I know this to be true, because many of my colleagues and I complaint how students constantly harass us about such things as, which chapters will the test cover or how many exams will there be this semester? Approximately 95% of the questions that students ask their instructors, the answers are already in the course syllabus. The educational system in the U.S., has been dumbed down, due to the fact that high school counselors, parents, and others, have made many students to believe, that they are intellectual giants, when really they are intellectual midgets. Being able to work on computers, and use all types of technology, does not make one smart or a genius. It just makes one a technological drone. Technological drones usually lack analytical and critical thinking skills. If one were to take away all the technological gadgets from most students today, and ask them a simple question such as ” what is your philosophy of education? ” They would either stare out in space or look at you like you were crazy. Why? It is very simple, they lack critical and analytical skills, and cannot think outside some type of electronic device. What we as professors need, is something like Rate My Students.com., so that we can have a public network, to discuss the performance of our students. Such as coming to class unprepared, neither reading the course syllabus nor the assigned chapters in the text, and no scan-trons, pencils or pens on examination day. Also, some of them are usually playing with technological devices in the back of the classroom, while the professor is giving a power-point presentation, and when the instructor asks them questions about the assigned materials that they supposed to have read, they can’t tell the instructor anything, or they just flat out admit, that they did not read the materials. I thought that this was just a community or junior college thing, but a few of my colleagues who teach at large universities, claim to experience the same thing, but, not on such a large scale, as we do at the two-year institutions. Finally, too many of the two-year colleges in large metropolitan areas, are becoming more and more ghetto, due to the fact that we have open door policies and that we are trying to teach individuals who have had no parental guidance. Several students missed their basic skills, somewhere along the line between k-12. Therefore, we are trying to teaching individuals who have 5th and 6th grade reading levels, which exacerbates the problem when they possess negative attitudes. I have only given a few examples what many professors face, at several of the two-years institutions, across the U.S. . However, let it be understood that the community and junior colleges, also have a great deal of good students, who transfer to universities, after completing their basics at the two-years colleges, and become very successful in their fields of study, as well as gaining employment in their respectful disciplines. Rate My Students.com, would be great for professors, so that we can give our views concerning students.
The Bowtie Professor Speaks!
Tags: College Students
This entry was posted on Monday, October 31st, 2011 at 7:47 am and is filed under Individual Experience, Politics And Education. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
I agree. I teach at a major university and I’m astounded by student reactions to things. My first semester teaching, I sprang a pop quiz on my class and they actually pulled out their notes and books! Really? For a pop quiz? I don’t think so! This semester, I actually had a student ask if they could have advance warning about when pop quizzes would be. Uh, no…that’s where the “pop” comes in. They seem very put out when I ask them to actually take notes (as opposed to me providing them with copies of my notes), stating that “all our other teachers give us the notes.”
And don’t get me started on students with gadgets! My requests to put them away have resulted in walkouts and out and out defiance.
I am appalled at how seriously students (and some administrators) take rate my professor. My freshmen told me this fall that the site plays the most important role–over the subject–in how they select their seminar sections. One of my colleagues suggested we look at the ratings of a candidate for a position in our department “to see if she is highly rated.” I find this all simply another example of how the ideology of capitalism has infiltrated education. The customer is always right even when the customer is 18 years old and proudly ignorant of history, geography, political ideologies, and tacit rules of polite conduct. After 26 years teaching, I have seen a steady decline in students ability to handle even the most gentle criticism.
Most administrators are only concerned about making money. Therefore, they want high enrollments. The quality of students are not their concern. Students come to colleges, not even prepared in the basics. The vast majority of them hate to read anything past a text message on a phone. Several of them come to class without purchasing the required materials for the course, and expect professors to give them handouts. It is a serious decline in the American educational system. Also, too many of them whine like babies if they think the instructor gives them too much work. They want the highest grades for the least amount of work, and most administrators baby them a great deal. What a shame.
The Bowtie Professor Speaks!
I am an adult student who does use “Rate My Professor.” I have found that there is a great deal of variation in professor quality and teaching style in the schools I have attended. I suspect this is true in any institution. I have found comments from former students invaluable in selecting quality teachers, however not every “rating” is of equal value. I automatically ignore whining, vindictive comments or obviously unfair criticism. Some comments do throw up red flags for me. A professor who is reported to be chronically late or absent, who is disorganized, misanthropic or bored is not someone with whom I care to spend a semester. What I look for is someone who is enthusiastic about their subject, organized and fair. I expect to work hard for my grades and I expect to learn something.