In the winter, I tend to ride the campus bus instead of riding my bike. I just tweeted,
“University classes are back in session. I love listening to student chat on the bus -instructive, entertaining, and a little scary.”
Let me give some examples.
Instructive – A shocking number of conversations are dedicated to various issues related to paying rent and bills, dealing with landlords to fix problems in their apartments, car maintenance, jobs, and other basics of living independently. These issues seem to take up a huge proportion of students’ time and energy. I hear a lot of students making errors in how they approach a lot of these things – not making themselves clear with the landlord about a problem, relying on parents to make decisions, or not dealing with problems promptly. In short, I’m listening in on students learning through experience and error many of the skills related to being independent.
I went to college at a small school where everyone lived and worked on campus and ate in the cafeteria. My peers and I learned these skills either during summer internships or after college, leaving significantly more time and mental energy dedicated to our coursework. It’s instructive for me to hear this kind of thing as a professor to remind me that my students are dealing with much more than their schooling and work. As a parent, it makes me think how much to start teaching my children how to interact with landlords and managers, how to make sure bills get paid on time, and other basics of living independently.
Entertaining – Today I listened to a student’s comedic rant on the pros and cons of 100 F vs -10 F weather. I love that I hang out with young, smart, imaginative young adults. I love that this is my job.
A little scary – A fraction of students seem to put a lot of energy into avoiding as much intellectual engagement in their course work as possible. I certainly see this in the classroom in maybe 10% of students in my general education classes. I find it a little nerve wracking that a population of students, who were all high achieving high school students, don’t have sufficient perspective and intellectual curiosity to see the value in such classes. I work to foster this in my own children, but I wonder, how does one exactly teach perspective and intellectual curiosity?
“University classes are back in session. I love listening to student chat on the bus -instructive, entertaining, and a little scary.”
Let me give some examples.
Instructive – A shocking number of conversations are dedicated to various issues related to paying rent and bills, dealing with landlords to fix problems in their apartments, car maintenance, jobs, and other basics of living independently. These issues seem to take up a huge proportion of students’ time and energy. I hear a lot of students making errors in how they approach a lot of these things – not making themselves clear with the landlord about a problem, relying on parents to make decisions, or not dealing with problems promptly. In short, I’m listening in on students learning through experience and error many of the skills related to being independent.
I went to college at a small school where everyone lived and worked on campus and ate in the cafeteria. My peers and I learned these skills either during summer internships or after college, leaving significantly more time and mental energy dedicated to our coursework. It’s instructive for me to hear this kind of thing as a professor to remind me that my students are dealing with much more than their schooling and work. As a parent, it makes me think how much to start teaching my children how to interact with landlords and managers, how to make sure bills get paid on time, and other basics of living independently.
Entertaining – Today I listened to a student’s comedic rant on the pros and cons of 100 F vs -10 F weather. I love that I hang out with young, smart, imaginative young adults. I love that this is my job.
A little scary – A fraction of students seem to put a lot of energy into avoiding as much intellectual engagement in their course work as possible. I certainly see this in the classroom in maybe 10% of students in my general education classes. I find it a little nerve wracking that a population of students, who were all high achieving high school students, don’t have sufficient perspective and intellectual curiosity to see the value in such classes. I work to foster this in my own children, but I wonder, how does one exactly teach perspective and intellectual curiosity?