Engaging A Future Generation

Our dear SWASHZONE tends to be more than a little angst ridden on most days (& lord knows my own posts contribute to this!) so I thought I would post a feel-good post - yes - me! - Squid.

So the gist of this post is that I adore my students - or, at least, most of them. I truly do. They give me fits sometimes, sending me into head-clutching fits of despair, but through it all - I am genuinely very fond of them. Some of them cause me from time to time to ponder nervously the future of the world when it is run by people INCAPABLE of following simple directions or turning assignments in on time . . . but underneath all their slackery they are good-hearted delinquents - so perhaps the world will survive their air-headed slackness. And they are balanced by my wonderful students who put these slackers to shame - students who always go the extra mile towards academic achievement. Please may they be our future leaders!

Curiously - some of my personally favorite students tend to be the ones I give miserable grades to. At this point in the semester they start ducking into corners when they see me coming down the corridor - knowing that they are going to get an earful from me about their latest academic transgression. But they've learned to take my cussing at them as genuine concern and, to their credit, none of the students with whom I have developed a personal rapport has ever been fool enough to think that this meant they were going to receive preferential treatment. And this is to their credit. For the most part - they take responsibility for their abysmally low grades.

There are of course those for whom personal responsibility means nothing & everything is everyone else's fault & how dare I presume to think that I call the shots etc. - but in all honesty - these students are in the minority.

And on a final note - I find it fascinating sometimes to learn about how people 20 years or so younger than myself view the same world that we all inhabit. Their point of view is often fascinating (& scary!) but always important to consider. I consider myself privileged to be able to converse on a daily basis with our future. And hopefully they learn a bit from we old fogies as well. (I remember in a class discussion once about a piece of literature that contained sex one of my students making a comment about people over 40 not being interested in sex anymore - it was SO HARD to keep a straight face!) Yes their view of the universe is staggering sometimes.

Mine is such a terrific profession.