Gather a group of experienced college instructors around the campfire and it's probably inevitable that the conversation will turn to today's students, particularly their presumed lack of preparation and/or motivation.
Larry D. Spence, a professor at Penn State University, has submitted a thoughtful post on the subject to the "Views" section of Inside Higher Ed. The author says that good teachers inevitably reach a point where they quit lamenting the shortcomings of students, and get on with doing what they can to improve their teaching in new circumstances. An important moment for the professor occurred while visiting with a carpenter in his neighborhood, during a walk. The carpenter said:
“I build houses. The studs are never quite straight; the nails are imperfect and the plans mistaken. Contractors screw up schedules, suppliers deliver late, clients change their plans. I could complain about these blunders every day but I’d never build anything.”
It's an interesting take on the subject. Do yourself a favor and read the entire post, which is available free, here.
The problem with this analogy is that community college instructors are not building a brand new house. We are working on something that has already been under construction for 12 years, and we have less than four months to add another floor. I have heard a few building contractors in my day complain about their schedule getting hung up by subcontractors. Sometimes we have to more or less raze the building and start over.
Posted by: Howard Cox | July 13, 2009 at 08:34 AM