jenniferdebeer

entitlement/distraction

The thing that gets me down, and what got me often enough when teaching back in SA, was the sense of entitlement that some students had. And this unpleasant spoilt-rottenness usually came through at exam time, or more particularly, when the marks were released. There is something particularly ugly about entitlement, and to see it manifested in kids so relatively young is always surprising and off-putting all at once.

Musing on teaching matters: I felt sorry for the lecturer this afternoon. He so obviously felt a certain dis-ease in teaching, which made his lecture stilted, and what did not help was that he was seated throughout. And the students, all equipped with laptops, the majority of whom were distracted in browsing online, probably didn´t help to alleviate his sense of dis-ease. The poor man. When that happens - when you´re lecturing and the kids aren´t paying attention whatsoever - that is when you really start to wonder why you were put on the planet.

posted by Jennifer A. DeBeer @ 18:02