The Short March to the Door

 Via Eric

What a horrible end to my life’s work.

Tomorrow will be my last day teaching at a local university. It will be my last day teaching, period. For approximately 25 years, I’ve taught at the university level, and I spent seven years in a public high school.

Over the years I’ve seen the effects of technology on students. When I started teaching at University of Missouri as an adjunct in 1990, students read books. They didn’t have cell phones. Computers were still new. I wrote my master’s thesis on an Apple Mac. Now, the overwhelming majority have never read a book they were not assigned. Most never read the assigned books, preferring instead to consult Sparknotes online or submit papers they’ve paid someone to write for them. They cannot follow an argument in an article. They do not have the patience to try and tease out complex ideas and apply them to related issues. They don’t care about learning. They only care about their grades. They see nothing wrong with plagiarism.

Of course there are still a few for whom learning matters. The number has dwindled, however, and I find it decreasing every semester. I cherish those students who value learning.

More @ Flyover  Country