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Tuesday, June 08, 2004

Hello Friends! Thank you all of you who commented on the "spices of life" essay (from Friday). I greatly appreciate and enjoy your comments.

Those of you who are teachers (and in many ways, we all are)..... What are your greatest frustration(s) about students as a teacher? As a old college professor I would say my frustrations are:

1. Students who don't give a damn about the course and simply want a (high) grade. My personal philosophy is that I do not give a damn about grades.... period. I do not care if the student is getting a "D" or an "A"... they are treated equally. But, when a student whines and says, "I never got nuthin' lower than an "A" before!" it frustrates me no end. The course is about LEARNING SOMETHING... not a damn grade.

2. Students who obsess on getting a few additional points on an exam. These are the students who will badger you during breaks or before or after class to argue and debate and generally fuss about and try to bamboozle you into giving them a few extra points.

3. Students who complain (often loudly) that I give out "TOO MUCH WORK" or "TOO MANY READINGS". I have been teaching for MANY, MANY years... I have been able to successfully estimate what are appropriate readings for a given topic and for a particular course. Some portions of courses require more reading than others. READING S should not be viewed as punishment, but OPPORTUNITY!

Those are the big three. I would enjoy hearing your own least favorites.

PipeTobacco
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I appreciate all forms of comments on my writings. I find that I miss the sponteneity of coming to read them here when they were unmoderated. I believe I wrote less due to the moderation. I have decided to adopt limited moderation. Hopefully the prior problems with unfettered comments will not arise again. Please feel free to comment as you wish about the essays I write. I will maintain those comments that offer kind-hearted and gentle opinion... be it positive or negative. The opinions of your comments will, of course, need to have relevance to the post as well.