I posted this to make the point that I’m in a transitional period on how I view my duties toward my students, and how to set the level of expectations.

Good on them.

I don’t know, I didn’t go into cold fusion.

Note that I am NOT saying that the weakest students are all of a particular demographic, or that all students of such a demographics are always weak. But there is a correlation, everybody is aware of it, and the second you start talking about weeding out weak students people make certain associations. (For the record, though, my poster-children for over-rated students who should have been weeded out include a substantial number of white suburban kids and an Asian dude.)

It is no different from being a judge or a soldier. As a judge, a Christian will be required to inflict suffering to the guilty, and as a soldier, kill the enemies of the state, which would be sins if done as a private person. Only if you take pleasure in these actions you are sinning. (And surely, some day you will. That’s what the grace is for.)

It’s not just a problem in huge classes with mixed abilities, but it’s certainly more of a factor for my time. In a class of 100 students, some of them more clueless than shit, no matter how explicit I am there is inevitably one person who misunderstands something and finds some ambiguity, so I inevitably have to then bend over backwards and figure out what to do that is fair. Also, while I will argue in favor of the pedagogical merits of online homework (in short, computerized homework gives students immediate feedback and also gives me an instant report on what they do and don’t know, and by randomizing the questions you can fight back against cheating), it certainly adds some record-keeping and administrative duties. Same for clicker questions–again, I will argue that they have some pedagogical merits (which is not to say that I’ll go out and be an evangelical asshole like some people), but it’s Yet Another Thing that I have to have a policy on, and help students trouble-shoot, and maintain records on, etc.

If the fuckers would just study and were actually capable of solving hard problems, we could run classes in a mode of intellectual dialogue, where I give my take, then we go back and forth over the challenging problems that they’ve been chewing on. Alas, they need to be led around, and the format means that I have to spend a lot of time on logistics.

I’ll add that having huge classes with mixed abilities basically means that you have to shovel out busy work, homework, extra credit, multiple versions of the same exam, attendance checks, recitation work, recitation attendance checks, blah blah blah. All this means that the class becomes more of a scheduling and time challenge than an academic one. In order to get that A (or 4 or 5 or whatever the scale is) the proportion of work that is honest “look I’m learning” stuff over “ass in chair” stuff drops precipitously.

Shortly before the Divine Intervention Scene…….

If you get that warm, fuzzy, Christian feeling from ministering to people in many circumstances, then I would venture to say that your Christ-like-ness is not really so much in question. Instead, the issue seems to be that actually ministering in an effective manner in your circumstances requires not so much addressing the immediate need as addressing instead the systemic issues that give rise to the need.

A warm, fuzzy emotional state is nice, but is not really a reliable indicator of faithful ministry. Sacrifice of time and effort and emotional investment is, well, a sacrifice. But if you never benefit yourself in the midst of your giving, then perhaps your vocation is elsewhere? Perhaps you have been given too much of a deeper vision to be content with (naive?) hit-and-run remedial education in the midst of what should be a more advanced setting. At least in this circumstance, that could mean confronting the larger issues on a strategic (dare I say, bureaucratic?) level rather than dealing with individual struggles on a tactical level. After all, the poor[-ly performing students] you will always have with you.

I agree with all of what you say. Thing is, I just feel exasperated dealing with these lost sheep. Despite what I might say when I vent, I don’t actually despise them. However, I don’t feel any satisfaction from working with these lowly students when they’re in the wrong class. I occasionally teach some courses in which there is an appropriate time to help these poorly-prepared kids where they are at, and I feel satisfaction, but the vast majority of the contexts in which I encounter them are not appropriate ones, so I get no warm fuzzy feeling from interacting with them, no sense of satisfaction for ministering to the lowly.

OTOH, I know some people who actually do feel some sort of warmth from encountering the lowly. They really do feel like they’re doing something important. I sometimes wonder if they are better Christians than I am, in some sense (even though some would not describe themselves as Christians).

The thing that keeps me from trying to emulate their feeling, from experiencing it the way they do, is that I see so much wrongness in this situation. It is a virtue to help the desperate, but I don’t see anything helpful coming in this context.

Part of the reason that you’ve been plagued with college students who can’t do reasonably simple math or write coherent sentences is that no one before you had the integrity—or the compassion—to provide an honest assessment of their abilities. If no one breaks this cycle when they are still in a position to recover from such a setback, then these students will have even greater problems later—for example, once they venture out into the real world and end up being summarily fired for displaying such incompetence.

With respect to being a good Christian instructor, I have to say that Christ Himself was not really in the business of affirming people’s self-esteem. “You brood of vipers! You blind guides!” probably hurt some people’s feelings. And even “Go and sin no more” implies a negative judgement on the previous actions of the woman so addressed. Grammatically incorrect sentences are not (usually) evidence of moral failure, but the point remains valid. I would argue that it was precisely because Jesus valued these other people for who they were (rather than tying their worth to some perceived need to have their accomplishments recognized) that he refused to coddle them with what would ultimately have been destructive bullshit.

So that is all a long-winded way of saying that you should definitely be pissed off that students who can’t handle the material are being foisted off on you, and you should advocate mightily for them to be elsewhere–namely, in the sufficient quantity of remedial courses (taught by you, or by someone else) that permit the non-remedial students to proceed at the usual academic pace without having their education compromised.

A good example is what happens when the car breaks down. Poor people are more likely depending on the car to get to work and have few alternatives. Public transport sucks in most cities. If the car breaks down expectantly there is a good chance you miss work, and a day’s wage. Needing to save money and time you can’t shop around for the lest expensive garage and your horizons are foreshortened because you have to find one that will tow inexpensively or use one close by. Depending on reliable public transport means you are likely to get to work late. You miss one day and a re late the next so you are now in danger of losing your job.

Given that they know you are poor the garage is either going to want payment up front and/or demand payment in full before they release your vehicle. You might be able to negotiate a deal but this means you have to talk to the business owner during regular business hours, hours you are supposed to be at work.

While you work this through you have to struggle to get both you and your wife to work, the kid to daycare, and get to the grocery store for food. A bus ride runs a couple of dollars, a taxi at least ten each way.

Being wealthy enough to have second car means the whole thing is easier. It means you have time to find a mechanic that is both good and inexpensive. It means you don’t miss a day’s work. You stay on relatively good terms with your boss.

And I agree with your entire analysis (tho it’s easier to teach cross-ability creative writing than it is engineering).

There is a reason that charity can be called Do Gooding. If it leaves people just as stranded, and in more debt, it isn’t Good Shepherding.

My sophomore HS Algebra 2/calc class was ad hoc split in two, with 6 of us sitting in the hall doing “advanced” stuff and mostly team learning with useful input from our rockstar teach in between her working with folks to grok the concept of a Cartesian plane. This was in the south, late 80s. She rocked. I still know four of those people. One professor, one structural engineer, one music guy, one stay at home dad. I do software, although I’m starting to think I need to make something touchable.