One of my fellow online instructors recieved a rude email from one of her students who was generally displeased with the class. In her reply, as a technical writing teaching tool, she reminded him of the importance of tone in professional communication, asking as an example, if he would ever write such a message to his boss. He replied that, no, he would never use that tone with his boss but that the instructor was paid to instruct him. Wow.
The notion of the student as consumer is not new to me--I've heard tons of conversations along the lines of, "If I'm paying to be here, why should my attendance be required?" But this is the first time that I have heard of a student so brashly informing a teacher that she is his employee. There is so much wrong with this concept of the student-teacher relationship that I really don't know how I would handle the situation.
Education is no doubt a financial investment, and there can be advantages, I think, to seeing it that way--one might be motivated to do well in order to get the most for one's money. People tend to value what they pay for. But the notion of student as employer of the instructor cannot be good.
I have written and deleted three different paragraphs in this spot. There is much to say but so far nothing I have said has satisfied me. For now, I suppose I am just sending out this problem and my distress over it into the blogosphere.
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8 comments:
I adjucnt at a place that has a student as customer model.
It's scary, at first, but I've ran into less students with the attitude described in your post there than anywhere else.
I could attribute this to all sorts of things, but the fact is that the statement alone--the students are your customers--scares away the meanest, stingiest, craziest instructors.
As an undergrad I was submitted to all sorts of craziness outside my department, and I can *almost* understand students being driven to feel "I'm not paying to be treated this way, dammit! I want you to realize that I'm an adult, prepare for your lectures, treat me with respect, and *gasp* show up to class on time!" which are all things that I found problematic till I got into a discipline I liked and stuck with it.
Even so, it was difficult at first to recognize good from bad--especially early in the term.
I can't excuse students being jackasses, and don't even mean to. But I do think using a pedagogical model that holds teachers (especially adjuncts, in this case) accountable to show up, get homework back on time, and to treat students with courtesy (not yell if at all possible) isn't a *bad* thing. And if you remove those common problems from the school, students are less likely to complain about bullshit like tone that would otherwise go unnoticed.
I don't often resort to the "this is not a democracy" model of teaching, but in this situation, I would be hard pressed not to fire off an email expressing that sentiment. I get that we pay for our college educations--I mean, I'm still paying for my undergraduate education--but I don't get students' attitude that they are entitled to treat their instructors however they want to. Perhaps this instructor could turn the tables on the student and remind him or her that the teacher is in fact the employer and that the student is the intern--you do have to pay big bucks to secure some prestigious internships. As an intern, the student is working for a good grade and a positive recommendation. With the attitude the student just presented, I find it unlikely he will get either.
They actually pay for qualified instruction that will result in them being a learned person. This does not mean that it will always be to their liking. I don't always like things that happen at the doctor's office, but I recognize that I am paying for the doctor's qualified expertise that will help me be a healthier person. Same deal, I say.
I am all in favor of holding teachers accountable for their responsibilities, but that does not mean that students can demand of teachers what they wish or that the teacher's responsibility is to please the student. Of course, the example I posted was one of sheer rudeness, and I would hope that an employer would not speak to his or her employees with disrepect, either.
I left college-level teaching (at an Ivy League university, no less) precisely because I was frustrated with the student = customer equation. I opted instead to teach writing in independent high schools--the money was better, and ironically I actually had more freedom to teach what I wanted.
However, I also encountered these types of students (and their parents) at the high school level, and it got to the point that I actually began grading the students' email correspondences with me as part of their participation grades. I printed out several of their most egregious email offenses (where they were "shocked" and "appalled" by their grades, "yo") and showed them in class the importance of tone, respect, and diction when communicating with teachers, bosses, supervisors, etc. The grades of those who continued to send me emails that looked like Prince album liner notes (i.e. "wut wuz da homewrk 4 yr class?") suffered, but the majority actually thanked me for teaching them how to present themselves in professional situations.
Of course, you can't grade a college kid's email, but I do wish more teachers at the secondary level would take this form of communication more seriously.
Suffice it to say, I feel your pain.
You know, I think that grading student emails is a fantastic idea. And totally appropriate for a technical writing course.
I agree that you should be nicer to more people than your boss, but I do believe that the classroom is a professional environment--one in which the instructor's job is to teach, and the student's job is to learn. That's not saying that one or the other is an employer, but rather learning (at any level) should be a mutually respectful, collaborative process, and each party should be responsible for his/her own part of this process.
I see lots of teachers who spend months returning essays with next to no feedback, and I find that nearly as rude as the student who's chronically late or writes annoying emails.
I also agree with mommyprof's comment--students can be so arrogant as to "know" what's best for them in a classroom situation, when they would never question the professionalism of a doctor. If a student claims to know more than the teacher, then why bother with education at all?
I get variations on that sometimes - but luckily I'm at a public university so I can come back with "Actually the citizens of this state are paying most of my salary because they value the production of educated individuals." Yes - there is a consumer here, but you the student are not it.
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