David Bowman said, "I had a colleague in our department who retired this past spring who had a saying (among other notable sayings), 'Nothing works unless the students do.'"
I know there are those on this list who will strongly disagree, but I would say this statement can also be phrased as "Anything works when the students work."
I've experienced a lot of good students and a lot of poor students. Sometimes the primary difference is lack of sufficient background for the poor students. But most often the primary difference is whether the students work hard enough or not. For me, the motivated students (motivated by the desire to understand) learn a lot in spite of my shortcomings, and the unmotivated students learn little no matter how good I am. The other category (those motivated by the grade) can go either way.
This is a little bit similar to the phrase we often hear and say about parenting... "I won't take credit for the successes of my children if I don't have to take blame for their failures."
Michael D. Edmiston, Ph.D.
Professor of Chemistry and Physics
Bluffton University
Bluffton, OH 45817
(419)-358-3270
edmiston@bluffton.edu