Prior to entering the teaching side of academia, I spent a looooong time as a student. We (students) would have deep, "enlightened" conversations about how the professors were getting stale and inflexible compared to "a few years ago". (Yes, it's a lot of quotes already, but I haven't mastered the art of conveying sarcasm via blog without using quotes.) Now, on the other side, I see that my old student-self was partially right. Professors do change over time. But we do it in response to the increased immaturity of a few chosen students. These bad apples, if you will, force us to make syllabi 7 pages long just to cover every possible academic contingency. Truly, I just added a full page of consequences for various academic dishonesty/fraud possibilities in response to the shenanigans I've witnessed this past semester.
I refuse to become bitter, I love teaching just as much as ever. But I am rapidly losing my former naivete. In response to my former student-self, I say I am not getting "inflexible". I am getting wiser.
Yep, forget that whole "It takes a village to raise a child" crap. Hillary was misquoted! It actually "takes a cudgel"!
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I randomly shake my fist and yell "you kids get out of my yard" just because.
It may be different for you in that you're at an R1 (right?) but I always have to remember that for the most part, many of my students @ my SLAC are not at all like I was, or my peers. They are happy with a C. And don't really care to learn anything. So my standards are probably lower than they once were and I'm probably meaner, too. I've been doing this 10 years dammit!
Get off my lawn!!!
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