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Re: Tutoring

This irritates the bejabbers outta me!!!

Even my elementary education majors have to work their buns off to get a C
from me. At the end of every semester I have students who come to me
angry, claiming they "deserve" an A, even though the grade average was
perhaps 82, because they "worked hard" or some such. These kids are so
used to being handed grades because they're cute or sweet or something that
they go through life expecting everything to be handed to them.
Entitlement reaches the classrooms of America!

I also insist my students address me properly. Maybe I'm old fashioned, but
I insist on respect, both ways. I kid with them, send them email humor, and
flex as needed to get them comfortable with science so they'll teach it and
teach it well, but I *don't* give away grades unearned.


At least ONE professor at UCLA has solved the old tutoring problem
in General Education Physics. 'Mark' (call me Mark, says his syllabus)
guarantees students at least a 'C' in the class. My daughter is taking
Physics 10 at UCLA. The minimum requirement for a 'C' grade is to
"show up for one of the two midterms" (sic.) and to take the final. There
is no minimum grade on the tests for a C.

Granted I went to school in the '60s, but I am pretty outraged at the
way instructors, even at noted universities, are pandering to non-science
majors. Heaven forbid we should hurt their self esteems by requiring them
to actually perform!





Dr. Lois Breur Krause
Department of Geological Sciences
442 Brackett Hall
Clemson University
Clemson SC 29634

teaching chemistry, physics, astronomy and geology to elementary education
majors.

How We Learn and Why We Don't: Student Survival Guide,
available from International Thompson Publishing, ISBN 0324-011970

http://home.earthlink.net/~breurkrause

krause@clemson.edu