Thursday, December 01, 2005
I LOVE College Kids
I'm getting my MBA here in Chicago. I'm "lucky" enough to be a TA for an entry-level finance class. This helps defray the cost of my MBA, but it also has the effect of giving me more gray hair. That could be helpful in the job search though because I've heard that men with gray hair look distinguished and knowledgable. I don't think that'll be the case with me. I'm just going to look beaten-down. More so, anyway.
I've forgotten what it's like to be a college student. It's been 8 years since I graduated from the University of Illinois. College was a bit of a blur for me. I remember there being buckets of beer every Friday afternoon. Beyond that, um, I think I had roommates.
Seriously though, college was a bit of a joke. I drank a lot and I partied a lot. But I always managed to get my work done. I think I even graduated with some sort of "cum laude." Magna? Summa? Mega? Giga?
I knew that people goofed off in college. I have no problem with this, in theory. But now that I'm a TA, it's starting to annoy me. The good news is that it has nothing to do with me being an old fuddy-duddy. It's because I hate dealing with morons, which quite adequately describes the kids in my class. (And yes, I find it odd that I refer to 18-22 year-olds as kids.)
Is it wrong of me to have minimum expectations of students? Is it really too much to expect people to turn in all their homeworks? Is it too much to expect people to know how to do basic addition and multiplication? Is it too much to expect people to know how to use their calculators? Honestly, I had someone ask me during the midterm how to use their calculator, as if that was one of the conditions on me being a TA to the class.
It's quite amusing to see the kids scramble for extra points now. They're asking for extra credit projects. (My professor amusingly told someone the other day that their time right now would be better spent studying for the final than doing any "extra" credit projects. Duh.) They're negotiating to get extra points on their homeworks. It's all rather amusing and it gives me a great feeling of power. Now I know how God would feel if HE were a TA.
I've forgotten what it's like to be a college student. It's been 8 years since I graduated from the University of Illinois. College was a bit of a blur for me. I remember there being buckets of beer every Friday afternoon. Beyond that, um, I think I had roommates.
Seriously though, college was a bit of a joke. I drank a lot and I partied a lot. But I always managed to get my work done. I think I even graduated with some sort of "cum laude." Magna? Summa? Mega? Giga?
I knew that people goofed off in college. I have no problem with this, in theory. But now that I'm a TA, it's starting to annoy me. The good news is that it has nothing to do with me being an old fuddy-duddy. It's because I hate dealing with morons, which quite adequately describes the kids in my class. (And yes, I find it odd that I refer to 18-22 year-olds as kids.)
Is it wrong of me to have minimum expectations of students? Is it really too much to expect people to turn in all their homeworks? Is it too much to expect people to know how to do basic addition and multiplication? Is it too much to expect people to know how to use their calculators? Honestly, I had someone ask me during the midterm how to use their calculator, as if that was one of the conditions on me being a TA to the class.
It's quite amusing to see the kids scramble for extra points now. They're asking for extra credit projects. (My professor amusingly told someone the other day that their time right now would be better spent studying for the final than doing any "extra" credit projects. Duh.) They're negotiating to get extra points on their homeworks. It's all rather amusing and it gives me a great feeling of power. Now I know how God would feel if HE were a TA.
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When I was grading the final, I had SEVERAL people who didn't know how to use PERCENTS!!! They'd come up with answer of 0.45 and say that it was 4.5%. HUH????
And then there are the people who don't understand things such as order of operations or why we use parentheses in equations. Thank god I'm done grading the finals.
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And then there are the people who don't understand things such as order of operations or why we use parentheses in equations. Thank god I'm done grading the finals.
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