The average college student today – by Hilarius Bookbinder

I don t blame K-12 teachers. This is not an educational system problem, this is a societal problem. What am I supposed to do? Keep standards high and fail them all? That s not an option for untenured faculty who would like to keep their jobs. I m a tenured full professor. I could probably get away with that for a while, but sooner or later the Dean s going to bring me in for a sit-down. Plus, if we flunk out half the student body and drive the university into bankruptcy, all we re doing is depriving the good students of an education.

We re told to meet the students where they are, flip the classroom, use multimedia, just be more entertaining, get better. As if rearranging the deck chairs just the right way will stop the Titanic from going down. As if it is somehow the fault of the faculty. It s not our fault. We re doing the best we can with what we ve been given.

All this might sound like an angry rant. I m not sure. I m not angry, though, not at all. I m just sad. One thing all faculty have to learn is that the students are not us. We can t expect them all to burn with the sacred fire we have for our disciplines, to see philosophy, psychology, math, physics, sociology or economics as the divine light of reason in a world of shadow. Our job is to kindle that flame, and we re trying to get that spark to catch, but it is getting harder and harder and we don t know what to do.

via hilariusbookbinder.substack.com

Required reading for all professors.

Personally, I’m getting into art. Turns out it’s a whole world of things. Who knew?