Don't Forget to Be Human.

In response to the "Finding the Right Balance" posts, I would say that it might be better to err on the side of compassion and to give some of these students a bit of a break.

I returned to university as an older student - one who held down a full-time job while also taking a full course load. After that I dropped back to working part-time so that I could concentrate on school but went through some extreme financial struggles because of this decision (if it weren't for my parents supplying me with food parcels on a regular basis I would have starved). I worked my arse off in school but there were times when I simply had too much on my plate and something had to give. Usually that meant school as putting work aside meant losing income, or perhaps the job itself, and I simply could not do that. Were it not for some very understanding professors, who gave me extensions when they didn't have to, I wouldn't have made it through. Perhaps the fact that I was an A student made a difference in their willingness to cut me some slack but I'd like to think that simple human decency played a large part in their decisions.

I made it through, proceeded to earn my MA, and am now a PhD candidate. But, if it weren't for the kindness of those professors who took the time to understand my situation, I'd never have made it through. In many ways, I owe my current position to them.

Although I am not yet a professor, I am a TA, and when confronted with students who are trying to balance life and school, I try as much as I can to remember the professors who helped me and I tend to give students the benefit of the doubt. Have I been burned by a couple of them? Of course. But I've also had others come and thank me for enabling them to get through the semester and continue on in school despite all of the other challenges life has thrown at them.

Perhaps we all need to remember that not everyone has an easy road to travel and that, out of sheer human decency, we should do our best to give them a helping hand.

Revisiting the Notion of Being Reasonable With Grades and Policies.

Both of the posts on "Finding the Right Balance" really hit home; I've had different versions of each of these students multiple times over the years. I teach at a 4-year state college, which also has by mandate of our Regents a 'community college function.' The effect of this is that we have a range of students, from those who could be at any of the Ivies to those who are struggling to pass the Adult Basic Education tests.

Almost all of the students have complicated lives of work [usually full time], families [for whom they may actually be the main source of income], and health care. When confronted with students such as the two described here, whose lives are out of control, I opt for the approach that means I can sleep better at night: allow the redo option; give them the benefit of the doubt for that C-; let them make up the exam or turn in the paper late.

In the greater scheme of things, I can't believe that this will be a better world [or this a better College] if I hold fast to principles that don't really relate to the situation. Sometimes life just really does suck for people, and some of those people are students, whose grade fate I hold. Will the world be worse off if I make a judgment call that 'violates' my stated policies? Doubtful: how good is a policy for which there is no conceivable reason to make an exception?

Back in the day when college and university enrollment was for the few and mostly the elite of society, and where a student was expected to work at it full-time, with no outside job or family or financial concerns [your family paid or you had a scholarship; there were no loans or Pell Grants in the bad old days], you might be able to say that the university stood for something 'bigger than just one student.' But those days are gone, for better or worse [or bits of both].

I think the best thing I learned about grading and very marginal students such as these two was when I was a TA. One of my professors recounted how terrible she felt for holding firm on a policy, only to have the student [a man about 25 years old], break down in tears and weep inconsolably after she told him she would not change the grade. She swore that she would never again hold firm for a couple of points over the course of a semester that would completely trash an individual's dignity. Another was from my major professor, who told me to be sure that before I stuck on such a principle that I could be certain that I had not made any mistake in grading for a few points here or there throughout the semester; was I so infallible that I couldn't give that C- or D+ instead of the D or F?

What's sad is that the majority of students who have perfected game-running and scams and chronic lying have made us 'toughen up' on the rest.

What Part of Hiatus Don't You People Understand? A Huge Response to Job Seeking Jerry Nets Just One Note. (We've Been Catching Up On "Gossip Girl.")

Dear Jerry:

I see you've already succumbed to Snowflake Syndrome. You seem to think you're special by virtue of your oh-so-superior R1 education from that top school. Oh my God! You had to lower yourself to apply for the dreaded 4/4 teaching position in BFE and even considered slumming around with those of us in community colleges! Why oh why couldn't any of these search committees see how truly amazing you are?

Here is a newsflash your graduate advisors shouldn't have had to convey: it's tough in the academy. It was tough when I started grad school 20+ years ago. Hundreds of job applicants are routine in most fields and have been for quite a long time. Until the Boomers retire or die, it's not going to get any better. The odds are not in your favor. But if being a professor is truly the only thing you can imagine doing, then take the following advice to heart.

Your newly minted Ph. D. doesn't mean jack. It's very rare for someone to get the ideal position right out of the gate. Most of us who have one now had to pay our dues. We moonlighted doing academic grunt work while we also did our TA/RA duties. We adjuncted or did VI/VAP stints while we sent out those hundred CVs to get a tenure track job. If you're not willing to put in the time to get the experience, this is not the job for you.

Decide what it is you really want to do. An R-1 position, a 4/4 teaching position, and a community college position are three very different animals. All have different duties and require different mindsets (none of which is Snowflake conducive). Just throwing your applications everywhere to see if something sticks is not an effective way to get a job. It's better to go for what you really want than to settle just to be "in the field." Search committees everywhere will thank you, as will your future colleagues and students.

Jerry the Job Seeker Checks In and He's Pissed.

Rate my students? I'd LOVE to rate my students. But the way this job season has gone I'm thinking I won't HAVE any students.

I'm a freshly minted Ph.D. from the top southeastern R1. My advisors and mentors smiled and pushed me through the programs happily, taking my money, taking my loans. And then they set me loose on a job market where even shit jobs get hundreds of applications for one position. I applied to a 4/4 teaching load job at a school in about the worst location in the US, and got a rejection note saying they had over 300 applicants. Who'd go there? Me, I guess. But not now because I wasn't even good enough.

I've beaten down doors of local junior colleges and they have part-timers who've been there for 20 years...how do I get in? Wait for someone to die? And anyway, I didn't get in this profession to be a scrambling adjunct anyway. That life is too hard. Driving around, teaching everywhere. No home, no office, no respect. I studied for YEARS so that I could research and teach in my field. I want in. I want to do it. I have great credentials and am ready to join the adults at the big table.

But there's no room, and I suspect that my university knew it when they let me in. I suspect everyone knows about it except those currently in grad school.

Is it a racket? Should grad school programs be taken to court in some kind of class action suit? It's about that bad. There's nothing that makes sense to me about this job search season. I have great grades, publications, research with a well known scientist in my field. I interview well. And after almost 9 months of dedicated job searching, I'm not even close to ANY kind of teaching gig.

How do people do this year in and year out?

I think it's a shell game. I think my grad school program, and others, know that the market is flooded. But ramping down their admissions would just cost them money, and anyway, they have their jobs.

And now what. I can't really just blow off all this work, can I? I can't simply say: "I wanted to be a cowboy, but now I'll be a ballerina instead." If I'm going to do something besides work in a movie theater or a factory or a Kinko's, I have to get on it. But does that mean I've wasted my grad school years? If I hang on and stay on the market, how do I pay for, uh, for FOOD! AN APARTMENT! CLOTHING! GAS!?!?!?!?!

There's something rotten with the system and every year a new crop of Ph.D.s is going to get screwed.

"Is There ANYTHING I Can Do?" Saving Students At Semester's End.

I guess I was this way when I was an undergrad; maybe it's always been thus. But I cannot work up any sympathy for students who turn over a nearly religious leaf at semester's end when they realize they're failing.

Their demeanor changes. Their faces change. They puppy-dog their way into my office, contrite, sorrowful, hopeful, begging. "Is there anything I can do?"

And I'm not one of those who takes any pleasure in sending them back out the door unquenched. I just would like to find a way to get them to take the enterprise seriously from the beginning.

I find myself frontloading every semester with warnings and urgings. "Don't get behind." "Work on this stuff early." "Take the bong out of your hand and put a pencil in it." So much of my time is spent trying to convince them to work, trying to make it clear to them that things are expected of them.

Faculty around me seem to have given this up. My office hallway echoes with "extra credit," and minutes before grades are due, I see my brothers and sisters taking in one last essay, some scribbled bullshit for a few points, a saving grace for an otherwise disengaged and lazy student.

"Save us," they holler in these last days. But for me, it's always too late.

During Summer, A Proffie's Expectations Are Different.

To my six summer school students:

Class hasn’t even begun yet and I already love you all. See, I’m making a flat rate for teaching summer school and six students is the minimum class size needed for the class to exist.

There are six of you. That means I’ll make my money while doing the minimum amount of grading and office hours.

Bless you! (Don’t any one of you think of dropping. I need to buy a new hot tub.)

Surf’s up.