ext_14402 ([identity profile] w0rdinista.livejournal.com) wrote in [personal profile] wordinista 2005-03-17 04:29 am (UTC)

You've hit the nail on the head, hon. These kids are so used to being spoon-fed that it's suddenly hugely unfair that an instructor expects them to do a little work themselves.

In fact, there was this one class I had where I told them that they had the tools to figure out most of the answers to their questions themselves. I'd help them out when they were truly lost, but I expected them to make an effort to figure things out on their own.

A hand shot up, and I proceeded to get lectured by an indignant (and, actually, as it turned out, unstable) student, about how helping them was my JOB. *sigh*

I'm the same way, though. When I got into graduate school, I had a lot of trouble in my literary theory course, and I wound up buying tons of books that basically translated Lacan and Althusser into layman's terms. These kids all want things spelled out for them. And I'm apparently "mean" if I don't do the spelling. :P

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