Taking ownership is overrated…let us just blame the teacher instead

In this day and age of “rate my professor”, YouTube rants, and anonymous emails, it become much easier for whisper campaigns to be hatched against teachers. Never mind that the teacher is following and enforcing rules about attendance, quality of work, APA, plagiarism, and just plain simple professionalism; there seems to be a new crop of students who just want the credit without actually doing the work.

“Professor I need an A in this class!”. Well my question for you is: what as a student are you going to do to prepare yourself to make sure you get that A? It is not my job to give you that A, it is my job to give you the resources to earn that A.

Flash forward; warning given, grades done, slackers fail, and then of course slackers cry and complain to higher ups. Now here is where te higher-ups often seem to fail: you must back up your teachers against unsubstantiated rumor and complaints, especially when they are enforcing your own rules. Higher ups need to be thinking about the long term good of the institution, not the popularity contest. Unfortunately, many places give lip service to their instructors, especially if they are adjuncts.

Before I continue, I need to add that this goes beyond just me ranting; this is an amalgamation of many teachers’ stories.

Do not allow these misguided students to send anonymous complainers; they need to cowboy up and confront. The law allows us to confront our accusers, so why should teachers have to defend themselves against a shadow.  Make sure the teachers know that you truly have their back, do not continually undermine them with back alley deals with bad students.

I could go one but I think my point is has been made; the purpose of school is to learn, and learning has rules. Do not be a coward; if you have an issue have a conversation, rather than a confrontation, because you might be pleasantly surprised by the results.

Dr Flavius A B Akerele III

The ETeam