Students Whining About Fairness

[Usmivka]

Be my guest. "Fair's at the [insert name of fairground]" was also a favorite.

[wildviolet]

This makes me wonder... if we accept that the world is inherently unfair, then how do we deal/cope with it?

[Usmivka]

Gripe on the internet, of course.

Or we can be proactive about not just speaking up, but taking concrete steps on a personal level to improve an unfair situation, but that could be said about most anything, and it can be really hard to make that leap.

Edited January 16, 2013 by Usmivka

[wildviolet]

Gripe on the internet, of course.

 

LOL, of course!

 

I think most of us recognize the unfairness of life but just choose to deal with it in different ways.

[ANDS!]

I'm sorry but some of you in this thread really do not need to be teachers and I hope are only doing this because you are forced to (it's what it sounds like).

 

Being a good instructor and being someone that empathizes with students does not have to be two mutually exclusive roles you can take on.  There's nothing that says you have to listen to a students excuse (whining, song-and-dance, whatever. . .) or take any of that into account when grading, but taking the extreme approach and turning a blind eye to anything outside of your office-hour does as much damage I think as capitulating.

 

Some of the best instructors I had were absolute maniacs when it came to tests and grading, but also knew that the world didn't begin and end with their classroom, and that sometimes the best way to produce competent students was to acknowledge that sometimes "shit happens - " and adjust accordingly.

[Shelley Burian]

I think that there are three different interpretations about what can be meant by "students' feelings" which are causing a bit of confusion and unjustified objections to the OP. Some people seem to be referring to the situation of a student complaining about a bad grade with little or no rationale for the complaint, apparently simply wanting to make the teacher aware of their feelings. Others seem to be referring to a different set of problems regarding the technicalities of grading and syllabus construction with the accompanying complaints about lack of clarity in communication. The third is the much more philosophical idea of what the learning experience in a college classroom should be like, and the increasing perceptions (justified or not) students have about professors' disconnect from their interests in and opinions on that experience. The OP seems to be referring to students' feelings in the first sense and I feel their reaction is justified. Due to an overall declining respect in our society for teachers, many students feel that they should receive a high grade for minimal effort.