When Our Students Don't Respect Us

He never learned to use the MLA citation method, but today he’s a successful engineer who supports the local arts council. | What counts as intelligence depends almost entirely on context. I find that my students are as smart, diligent, and idealistic as they have always been — as I was. But what they know, as a generation, is inevitably different from what my profession defines as knowledge. —Thomas H. Benton
When Our Students Don’t Respect Us (Chronicle)

Benton offers a good analysis of the professorial ritual of lamenting the inadequacies of our students. I confess I’ve done my share of this, just as when I was a student I lamented the self-centeredness and unavailability of my professors. But I’ve also done my share of defending the strengths of my students; I have yet to encounter a student who absolutely *cannot* switch into a more formal mode when required. (The student who inappropriately uses smileys or IM acronyms has usually mistaken the assignment for something much less formal.)

When I used to teach technical writing to engineering students, I quickly realized that by teaching basic writing skills (or, in the case of the many international students, basic English skills), I had the opportunity to contribute something to people who would one day design the highways and bridges and airplanes that I and my family would use. It was precisely because of their need that I had a job; and in my present position, too, my special skills mean that I can make a difference.

10 thoughts on “When Our Students Don't Respect Us

  1. If Monsoon Wedding were a company, then I would have stock in it. Funny you should mention that… I caught myself dancing to the songs just last week.

  2. Agreed, Neha. I haven’t read Salt and Saffron. Have you seen “Monsoon Wedding”? My wife and I rented it last year and some of the songs are so catchy we still sing snatches of them around the house.

  3. How about a world where everybody accepts each other — where everybody realises that they’re unique and so is the “different” person standing in front of them. We should go back to swinging from vines once in a while. I agree with you — it would be wonderful if people would just learn to listen sometimes. Ooh! I’ve got a book for you again! Salt and Saffron by Kamila Shamsie. It’s relevant to the topic at hand.

  4. Neha, while I knew plenty of activist teachers in my previous job, the they had to be good teachers first, and activists second. Some of my journalism students who initially thought they wanted to enter journalism in order to advocate for their particular political perspective or special interest realized that newbie journalists rarely if ever get to choose what to write about, so they really have to love researching and writing in general if they want to succeed in the profession. While the topic of bias in the media is perennial, ideally journalism as it is practiced today is supposed to be fair to all sides. If you are an activist who finds one particular viewpoint reprehensible, I think it will be hard to be fair to people who hold that view.

    I don’t mean to say that my composition classes are non-political; a few years ago I found a great article somewhere that argued that composition classes are designed to promote values and behavior that helps students succeed in college as it is taught, and prepares them to fit into society as it is now; composition classes are threfore conservative (or at least they promote conformity to middle-class values such as diligence, punctuality, etc.). And I have to agree. My strategy has always been that if I help students write good arguments that respect multiple viewponts, and if the students are trained to scrutinize their own assumptions and biases, I am doing my job well. My goal isn’t to change opinions that my students have, but rather to help them make the best possible case for whatever opinions they do have, and in the process, train them to locate and respond intelligently to the best opposing arguments.

    This is not to say that I personally am a moral relativist. I always feel like I’m doing something right if a student ends up changing his or her opinion, regardless of where they end up. But Aristotle says that whichever answer is “right” will have more evidence and better arguments to support it. The anecdotes I use in class typically focus around family events and don’t typically involve the use of illegal substancdes, I’m sure that students pick up on my personal preferences, and that has some affect on the way they frame their research questions.

    I don’t think we need a world where everybody agrees with each other; I’d be happy enough with a world in which people are trained to talk to each other about their disagreements — something that won’t happen in a culture dominated by speech codes and the like.

  5. “…my special skills mean that I can make a differenc.” I love that. A friend of mine considers herself an activist and has been involved in a number of politically inclined demonstrations for a while. She has also been disillusioned plenty of times because the change that she had wanted to make hadn’t happened when she had wanted it to. I’ve had to repeatedly remind her that educating is as important as physically fighting. If people knew better, then there wouldn’t be a need to lobby for change. Thank heavens for teachers.

  6. On the first day of my freshman composition class, I spent the almost the whole period on an ice-breaker that was also designed to set some boundaries. I asked students to discuss in small groups things that they are good at, that they could demonstrate for us in the classroom. Then, I told them that if anyone wanted to volunteer to demonstrate their talent, I would try to do whatever it is they could do. As the parent of two small children, I’ve gotten used to looking ridiculous (you should see me sing and dance along with The Wiggles), but I confess my heart was pounding… what would they suggest? Arm wrestling? Handstands?

    We had people speaking in foreign languages, or their own native language; one who was double-jointed demonstrated some things with her body that looked very painful. Another challenged me to the “upon the slitted sheet I sit” tongue twister. It wasn’t as bad as I thought, but the students were applauding for their peers and applauding my attempts to match their efforts.

    I said the exercise was supposed to set boundaries, too… I pointed out that, while they are all good at certain things that I will never be able to master, and that some of them were born with abilities that I’ll never be able to learn, all of them can improve their writing skills, and that this is the place to do it, becuase in no other class (except another writing class, of course) will their professor have the time, interest, and expertise to spend this much effort helping them improve their writing. I praised the class for applauding their peers’ accommplishments, and pointed out that they were also applauding my attempts; that already they were demonstrating the kind of supportive class culture that encourages learning, yada yada yada. So, while the icebreaker was fun and it helped the students see each other as supportive and their own contributions as valuable, I still drew their attention to the fact that the purpose of the class is not simply to applaud their efforts, but rather to set goals in front of them and recognize/encourage/demand their progress towards meeting those goals.

  7. I suppose I should mention that I feel like the MLA thing is a waste of time partly because I think there are a lot of interesting, useful subjects in english that learning about is a good use of your time – things that aren’t done because time is spent learning MLA. Ok, ok, I know I’m just ranting.

  8. haha Ok, I just can’t pass up the opportunity to pick on the MLA citations.
    Amazingly, he was able to be successful without learning the MLA citation method. I wonder how much time they completed wasted teaching it to him?

  9. From Mr. Benton’s article: “It’s the “bad” students who awaken us to the reality of human relationships based on equality. In a society excessively segregated by age and status, our relationships with students are an opportunity for the transfer of ideas and values between generations.”
    I would strongly tend to disagree. As an older student, I still raise my hand in class and wouldn’t dream of calling Professor Ersinghaus “Steve” until now–after I’ve picked his brain as my instructor and I’m done with him except as a fellow writer, even though I’m much older than him.
    I feel that the liberal attitude of questioning authority and teaching children that they are just as smart as their parents and teachers may be one of the reasons that there seems to be a lack of respect in some areas.

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