EMD613 Week 1 Comment on Rita Martinez blog posting

I think this idea of granting others A’s would go far in helping to re-establish respectful interactions in the world today. It seems like too many people are not open to perspectives that are different from their own. The idea of tolerance got twisted somewhere along the way to mean that others need to tolerate me, but I don’t need to tolerate others. I am not trying to make a blanket statement and say that everyone is like this, but whether you are in a classroom or at the doctor’s office or at the store, it does seem to be that there is more of an air of disrespect for other human beings than respect.

I attended a training today about safety protocol at the community college where I work. We went over things like what to do in the case of emergency situations, like a hostage taker or active shooter on campus, and how to handle disruptive students in the classroom. During the presentation, the Dean of Students mentioned that the many of the problems in higher education today are because the students are not respectful to each other, to faculty, to staff, to security, to administration, and even sometimes to themselves. He said that many of the students that are attending the school operate under the assumption that they own the process and the faculty and staff. They don’t have to (and are not going to) do what is asked of them. Now, I am not saying that I believe that this is true of all students, but I would agree that there has been a shift in the mentality of the student population at large.

I do try to operate by giving my students or others that I encounter A’s, I just wish it felt like more people were operating with the same motivation.

Gary Milton

I understand what you are saying here and I totally agree. I experience this quite often at the high school that I work at. I hear quite a bit from students that, I (the teacher) get in trouble if students don't pass the teacher class. I'm not sure if this is exactly what you are saying here but I think it goes toward the general mentally of today students, that they own the system and they can do what the wish. However that being said, I don't want to let the student's attitude determine my attitude. I see this a lot with others that I work with. I think the the idea behind giving people an "A" is not to give the "A" so that you can get the same back from them but instead to free yourself to partner with them and not have to stand as their judge. I find that the truth is, most of the time my student's action are not about me and therefor my student's action should never dictate my response. This is easy to say and hard to do but it is my goal.

Sunday, April 11, 2010 - 03:19 PM