I teach General Chemistry at a small, moderately selective liberal arts college. We provide a lot of support, but still every year have students flunk out. Often they have decent test scores and grades (in fact, the students who are accepted on probation almost never flunk out). Those who do get sent home often simply refuse to do any work. I have almost begged students to get me something that I can grade, including one person's senior thesis! (And at a big place, those students are just going to be allowed to disappear).
You also do need to be careful in comparing graduation rates -- ours aren't great, but most are students who choose to leave, often to save money or for a different social scene.
By the by, we do see helicopter parents, but these aren't parents with normal concerns. It is the person who calls me to ask when his daughter's final exams will be, or the person who calls an advisor asking where her child is right this minute. In other words, people who contact the professor when they should talk to their kid.
Very interesting.
I find this so strange.
I've never heard such a thing (in real life, that is).
I'm curious whether these parents act apologetic for calling -- ?
That is, do they act as if they know this is an unusual call or request?
another question
I'm also curious about students who go to college and don't do the work.
Is this happening more often today than it used to?
I've mentioned before that I think I'm seeing more kids come back home during freshman year than I did when I was 18. Maybe that's not the case, but it sure seems like it.
I don't remember anyone at Wellesley leaving in the middle of freshman year.
update: what do I know?
from Vicky:
Omg. *I* left Wellesley in the middle of my freshman year! December, 1974.... Too funny!
Have I mentioned the fact that I am frequently oblivious?
I don't remember anyone at Wellesley leaving in the middle of freshman year.
ReplyDeleteOmg. *I* left Wellesley in the middle of my freshman year! December, 1974.... Too funny!
I teach a class at the college level for first semester freshmen. It's intentionally designed as a process course and is targeted at students who think they want to major in business. However, students have to accumulate a certain GPA with a certain number of credit hours before they are admitted to the College of Business (COB). In the meantime, they are taking gen ed courses, and other required courses that serve as prerequisites, such as the managerial and financial accounting classes.
ReplyDeleteThe course itself has multiple goals: we want to introduce them to the standards and expectations that the COB has for its students, we want to cover each of the substantative areas involved (accounting, finance, insurance, management, technology, marketing, international business, ethics, etc.), so that the students have an understanding of what a business degree involves, and we want to introduce them to the Career Center and get them started thinking about what job opportunities might be available with certain majors and the steps that they need to be taking to make their goals become a reality.
With first semester freshmen, I also talk with them quite a bit about the expectations of professors and how college is not the same as high school. For example, professors actually expect that students will read the Syllabus.
Some students are going through a tremendous adjustment. For almost all of them, they are on their own for the first time: mom (or dad) isn't there to get them up in the morning and make sure they get to class, and mom's not there to nag them to get to bed on time and to eat healthily and to remember to exercise.
For some, this freedom is overwhelming, and quite frankly, some of them have to learn some painful lessons the hard way. I always talk to them about how hard it is to dig out of a hole of a lousy first semester GPA. Some students don't have good study habits; some just aren't interested. Most of them admit to being procrastinators; it's just that they aren't very effective at it. It takes a lot of practice and skill to become good at procrastination.
I also ask them to think about and focus on why they are at college; what are their expectations, why are they here, etc. Quite frankly, some of them have no idea; it was just the next step after high school. Others are quite focused and know exactly what they want to accomplish.
I also talk with them about the accounting and finance courses. These courses are tough courses substantively. Accounting is cumulative; most students need to do the homework on a daily basis, and actually start studying well before the first test. And, if they don't do well on the first test, the outlook isn't good for the remainder of the semester (without significant changes) because they don't have the foundation in place. It may be seen as a "gatekeeper" class, but there are reasons for that. Accounting is the language of business, and if students can't gain minimal proficiency, we're not willing to rubber stamp their diploma.
Separate and apart from the "survival" issues (and yet intertwined as well) are whether the students have sufficient background knowledge in the first place. I require my first year students to do a lot of writing; the assignments are varied in length and have multiple purposes. I spend a lot of time at the beginning of the semester making sure that they fully understand what my expectations are in that regard. You don't want to staple your paper? Fine, but after a grace period, you are going to lose points. You don't use complete sentences? You will lose points. However, I go to great pains to follow my procedures, and part of that process includes a lot of what I will call direct teaching, with lots of examples.
To be frank, some (perhaps most) students catch on pretty quick. Others don't, for a variety of reasons. But the bottom line, and I tell them this, is that I want them to succeed.
Well, my apologies--that turned into quite a rant!
Have I mentioned the fact that I am frequently oblivious?
ReplyDeleteIt's a big school (grin).
In my first year of engineering school there was a guy who was notorious for not handing in work. For two of our papers, to sit the end of year exam you had to hand in two lab reports (per paper). The lab repors got graded, but you didn't have to hand in passing grades to sit the exam, you merely had to hand the lab reports in.
ReplyDeleteThis guy did not hand his lab reports in. The head of the department called him in to his office and told him he had to hand these in, otherwise he couldn't sit the final exams. The faculty dean eventually did the same. He might have been able to pass in the exams if he'd handed in a sheet of paper saying "lab report" and his name (he'd have had to got over 90% on the exams, but hey). He didn't hand the lab reports in so he failed the year.
Having read this blog, I now think he had a serious problem with executive functioning.
Having read this blog, I now think he had a serious problem with executive functioning.
ReplyDeleteWhat does he write about?
Catherine, you can be excused for not understanding the phenomenon of helicopter parents, because it seems to me that the goal of most parents in this forum is to produce young people who can manage their own lives.
ReplyDeleteThey are not common, but they were unheard of in the past. At college, with FERPA, it can be complicated. I know faculty who have been screamed at by parents when they would not violate Federal law and say what their kid is doing without the child's written (and uncoerced) permission.
In our local public schools, the most common reason for a kid being kicked out of class and having a cell phone confiscated is because a parent has called during class to check on their child. More than once.
a parent has called during class to check on their child. More than once
ReplyDeleteOh heck; I just saw this comment.
I'm interested to know what was going on here & what the ages of the kids are.
Now that I'm a little more acquainted with high school, I can see why a parent might call. (The question is whether the student is physically in class----)
I'm not sure how I would handle a situation in which I was concerned about whether my child was cutting class. (I don't know how high schools handle things like this. I do know of situations where students left campus in the middle of the day & the parents didn't know about it. I think the high school may not have known, either -- or not 'til later -- but I'm not sure.)
Of course, I suppose a kid who has left campus in the middle of the day is likely not to tell you about it if you call....
It's another world out there.
I don't even know C's cel phone number. He didn't have a cel phone until a year ago, and then he only got one because he'd done something great (probably having to do with math-in-the-summer).
I don't know Ed's number, either.
I live in my own little world...
Many years ago I taught an elective fine arts course at a local community college. I was surprised at how "young" the kids acted. It felt like I was teaching high school juniors or seniors. They had to be walked through everything.
ReplyDeleteInterestingly enough, I had a parent call the dean to complain that a quiz I had given was too hard. The quiz basically covered a chapter and I used it to "encourage" the kids to actually read it before they came to class. They were warned ahead of time.
It was obvious most did not bother to read the chapter by the grades.
The dean called me into his office, but we ended up shaking our heads at the silliness of it all.
Later, I gave a lecture on the wisdom of dropping classes early enough so that you didn't ruin your grade point average, especially if you did not plan on ever doing any of the work. I think maybe one dropped, but the rest just hung out and took the bad grades.
Some kids just aren't quite ready for the responsiblities of college, although I'm sure many of them were there because their parents knew they weren't ready to go away either.
SusanS
Boy, I'm STILL avoiding Barry Seaman's book BINGE, which has been sitting beside my bed for a VERY long time now.
ReplyDeleteThe goal for the next four years is going to be getting C. into shape to be completely independent when he gets to college.
I'm pretty sure the new school is going to be working on that -- they have "mentor groups" for the kids that focus on academics, along with some service.
He didn't hand the lab reports in so he failed the year.
ReplyDeleteHaving read this blog, I now think he had a serious problem with executive functioning.
That would be my guess.
I've now seen kids who are just STOPPED. They're stuck. They can't get things done, period.
It's "procrastination" at a huge level----