Smelt at School

You won't learn how to smelt gold here, but thanks for stopping by.

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User: schoolsmelt
The smelting process (see above) is designed to remove impurities and capture the gold - it bears a striking similarity to writing a dissertation. Smelting's hotter, though.

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Friday, February 17, 2006
A thing of which I was not aware

You don't have to be accomplished to be entitled. I overheard a freshman student say to his professor, during office hours today*, likely in response to her question about why she hadn't received any replies from her emails to him about the class:

"Oh, if you want to communicate with students, you have to get a MySpace account and contact us that way.
I never read my email, it's too much trouble."

Wow. I try to take into account that students today are different from when I was an undergrad (no email back then, for one thing!), but I'm still shaking my head at hearing a student tell his professor the sole manner by which he will condescend to read her communications to him. My jaw was thunking on the floor, so I didn't hear her response, but it wasn't laughter, nor was it to throw him out of her office. I'm going to try to start up a conversation with her next week - I will report back if I do.

*Note: this professor has had back-to-back office hours for weeks - I've rarely seen the same student in her office twice, and I go in every day. I don't know her well at all, but I can't fault her work ethic.

So, am I an old fogey, or what?

posted by: schoolsmelt at 20:53 | link | comments (3) |


Comments:
#1  18 February 2006 - 04:06
 
That is fucked.



You have, I imagine, heard me rant about "kids these days" -- my main sound bite being that students now treat their education as a service like any other they might pay for and thus treat their instructors as they would any other service provider.



I also hate the way schools pander to this mentality, which they do because they are underfunded. Our school spends far more money on student activities each year than they do on academics. I am not making this up; I've seen the figures, and was working closely with student affairs while I was still working on campus.



The students here come from mainly very wealthy suburbs of nearby big city, and most of them go home on the weekends. While they're here, they do a lot of drinking, tanning, and fucking. I've actually never scene such a depraved scene, and I spent some time in Chico. People joke that it's like summer camp.



And, the school does nothing to discourage this attitude. For one kind of mind-boggling example, they built a new gym with a freakin' water slide and cruise-ship-style pool area. No wonder the kids treat this place like a resort.
User: NoChaser Contact me View user's mediablog NoChaser
#2  18 February 2006 - 14:11
 
the world is forever changing...
Anonymous
#3  20 February 2006 - 15:39
 
That is totally bizarre. I have noticed, however, that that generation has a very particular way of engaging in social computing that is interestingly tied to their real lives. It's all about who knows who knows who IRL, and referrals and whatnot. From talking with my sisters and young students, it seems fairly rigid for many of them.

-pg
Anonymous
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