9/7/09

This week I would like to focus on inexperience. I rarely have felt inexperienced in teaching because I have served in many roles as a mentor. However, in coming to the Communication Department at BG, I feel really under-prepared. The most shocking thing is that it doesn’t really matter because so little is expected from BG students. During my teaching presentation, I was critiqued because I did not go in depth as much as I could have. Well, that is as in depth as the department and the class expects me to go. I have never taught a class where it is almost expected that students will get A’s for doing the bare minimum. I believe that we are doing a disservice to our students because we are not preparing them for the real world or higher education. We give them the most basic information and expect nothing from them. As a teacher, it is more frustrating because I do not know the context to fill in the gaps that are missing from the readings. I don’t have the time or energy to really get to know all the material beforehand. Perhaps that sounds lazy, but my priorities have to be elsewhere if I am to survive in graduate school. After grading most of my kid’s first speeches, I am amazed to find that the system is set up so that they receive an A or B no matter what. I feel like I am unwillingly becoming part of a system of “dumbing” down of America. Why do we not push students to do their best? Why do we just push students through the system? I think that I would like to work for a school that has high expectations of their students. I think that some people are not prepared to go to college at 18 and perhaps it is not a bad thing to let them flunk out. What is the point of education when we are not really pushing people to do their best?