Student Manifesto: What I'm Owed

I Paid for this Course

Many more people have been students than have been teachers. That's too bad really. As a student, you have a very student-centric view of the world. Everything revolves around making you happy.

These are a list of expectations many students have:

Most students do really want to learn, but the effort their willing to put in is not always there.

Teachers have different expectations.

When teachers complain about students, they usually say things like:

Some of these statements sounds harsh, but believe me, if you were a teacher, you'd say the same.

You will take some courses with professors that are boring, confused, and rude. You will take courses that will demand you learn a lot on your own.

To compare and contrast. In many Asian countries, exams are extremely difficult. Students are expected to not only work on HW problems, but any other problems they find. They are expected to solve problems from other books. They are expected to read other books. Thus, you may have been assigned 10 HW problems, but you'd be expected to find 20 other HW problmes to do and answer them.

Would you be prepared to do that? Are you really prepared to make that extra push? Of course, such students have very little in the way of outside lives. Do you watch sports? Do you take a weekend off? Do you work? Sorry, all those things would have to be jettisoned in order to learn the stuff you're supposed to.

Microsoft hires interns. They tell interns that it's up to them to learn as much as possible. If they have a bad mentor they don't get along with, it's their problem. They have the resources to do many things, and they should do so. Of course, for the most part, the mentors are helpful, and the interns can rely on them.

The point is, as a student, the more you realize "It's my education, and the teacher doesn't have to be entertaining or clear or perfect. I need to be the one that works hard to overcome any problems with the professors".

To be fair, it's a two-way street. The teacher isn't going to be perfect, and neither are you. You have to learn to realize that the more you do for yourself, the better. Students who always complain about teachers are often students who won't do much for themselves (or conversely, students who do everything for themselves).

This means, rather than get unhappy about how a course is running, you need to make plans to learn it anyway.

The "A" students

Have you ever wondered why students who receive A's seem to do it regardless of how "bad" the teacher is? Many students feel that they need

What Teachers Owe You?

Realize that the teacher to student ratio is 1 teacher to many students. Here are reasonably things that teachers owe you, but I'll try to clarify.

However, teachers are in a tough spot. When students don't understand stuff, they don't usually say anything. Suppose you are an apartment manager. A tenant wants to sue you because you didn't fix a leak. You ask "why didn't you call me up? I could have fixed it".

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