The Truth About College Teachers Summary

The author uses Dr. Coates’ apparent expertise on the entitlement generation to support her arguments. She reassures her reader that Dr. Coates is an expert on the entitlement generation by indicating that his book, Campus Confidential is “a guide to the mindset of the entitlement generation” (par. 3). Wente presents Dr. Coates’ opinions as if they were her own, demonstrating her concurrence. Her agreement can be seen in her support of Dr. Coates’ statement that “[students] bring assignments in late and think that [professors] will mark them without penalty” (par. 4). Wente claims that this attitude is predictable because “that’s the way it’s been all their lives” (par. 5). Wente’s editorial is riddled with this type of accord, which may be criticized by the reader. The author only introduces the audience to Dr. Coates who is assumed to be the expert-on-the-topic and lacks an indication that there is adequate agreement among other experts. Additionally, there is no mention of the opinions held by Dr. Coates’ students regarding his credibility and competence in his role as a professor. It is possible that his opinion of the students he has encountered during his career has been shaped by their attitude towards his teaching ability, popularity or subject of expertise.

Re-read lines 1 – 24, what can you tell about the teacher and the speaker.

She says her colleague likes to tear apart an article with his students and then they have a discussion “about how to build a better model” (Tannen para. 7). Tannen says that this is the opposite of how she likes to teach, after readings she starts by asking her students “What did you find useful in this” and how they can use in their “own theory building” (Tannen para. 8) and their own methods? She also points out the weaknesses of the author’s approach and a reason for why that is.

Upon completing the novel I realized I will be frustrated with my students at times and will need to remember that there is always a reason for a behavior. My reaction to the behavior will be a very important piece in the relationship I build with my student.

While reading Journal 1 of The Alternative and reflecting on the assignment giving, memories of teachers flooded through my mind. I am unabashed to admit that I believed some teachers to be poor at their job, and have more than once thought that perhaps this wasn’t the correct career path for them. One such teacher was my 7th and 8th grade science teacher, who believed public shaming to be the preferable way of teaching adolescents. When a student would answer a question wrong in class he couldn’t help but laugh as well as bring it up throughout the lesson, refusing to let the student move past their mistake. He chose to

These stereotypes of teachers inspire the general public by showing a “fairy-tale version” of what truly happens in the classroom. The movies make it look like there is always some huge triumph at the end of the day and everyone ends up learning what they need to learn. This does not always mean learning the classroom material. Breault states that in most of the movies studied the teachers are more focused on teaching life lessons as opposed to the basic knowledge that should be taught in the classroom. The article also discusses how the teaches are viewed as heroes who save the students and advocate for them outside of the classroom. The teachers in the movies are praised for never teaching with a textbook or teaching regular course curriculum. The pictures show that the real live classroom is a lot more structured than what is portrayed in

The professor is telling students on the first day of classes that he or she will understand if a student is not in class, which will cause students to take advantage of this. For example, if a student over sleeps and misses the first half of class, he or she will have an excuse for skipping the second half. This will diminish the students learning experience because discussing the readings in class is an important part of many courses as it provides students with a stronger understanding and an idea of other students’ opinions and interpretations of the piece. In addition, as Lukianoff and Haidt state, trigger warnings tell students that “life is dangerous, but adults will do everything in their power to protect you from harm, not just from strangers but from one another as well” which perfectly demonstrates how trigger warnings are acting as a security blanket to students (Lukianoff and Haidt).

In The Basement of the Ivory Tower is a very illustrative and witty analysis that presents the idea that not everyone is suited for college. The author, who goes by the alias Professor X, presents himself as a man of scholar with the difficult task of teaching English to students he believes should not even be in college. He is an adjunct professor that teaches at two community colleges as a last resort. Throughout this article, he argues that there are too many unreachable students. During his efforts in exploring various strategies to help these students, he claims that they are deficient in ability to complete any college course—especially English. Overall, with a lack of statistics and research, Professor X utilizes his professional character by sharing multiple anecdotes that feebly argue higher education is simply not for everyone.

Author and speaker of the compelling article Why Tough Teachers Get Good Results, Joanne Lipman informs the public on different teaching styles and which ones have the best results. Dabbling in the careers of journaling, editing, and writing, obviously attending Yale University has given Ms. Lipman many opportunities to succeed in life in different areas. Although, having such a sheltered life as a white and privileged woman will obviously give her a different perspective of this topic. Joanne is automatically given the upperhand and is taught from an early age a different way to think about different subjects. Ms. Lipman was fortunate enough to go to a high-ranking high school in New Jersey which could have molded her thoughts about teachers and their teaching strategies. When reading parts of the article we can find examples of her knowledge on the subject, “We’re in the midst of a national wave of self recrimination over the U.S. education system” (Lipman 4) the reader acquires the sense that she is exceptionally well informed on the topic of the education system. With this comprehension of the issue, I can assume that Ms. Lipman has primarily worked in the education field. The background of an author is an immensely important quality when it comes to their works of literature. Not only does it show their point of view, but also their bias which proves to be influential to the readers. Creative and factual, Joanne spreads her point throughout the article thoroughly,

In Fish’s article in the New York Times, he aims to show both sides of the controversial assignments given to students. These assignments aim for the belief and strong views that students hold. They start discussions and many students even refuse to complete them due to their insensitivity to their beliefs. Fish tries to persuade the readers that when something attacks someone’s personal belief, they tend to react and fight for what they think is right. Fish also shows both sides of the arguments by talking about how the assignments are uneasy. Furthermore, how the professors do not mean to attack anyone they simply want to engage students in controversial topics and allow students who do deny the assignments to reaffirm their faith. Fish uses various examples in order to get his point across to the readers.

In “To Teach the journey of a teacher” by William Ayers different teaching styles are introduced. The book teaches us that nobody is a perfect teacher. A couple myths from the book include time management is essential to teaching and you learn everything you need to know about teaching in college. Everyone will have off days when they are teaching and it is not going to go perfectly. Also, you cannot really understand teaching until you are actually in a classroom experiencing it for yourself. School may teach you basic skills and situations that you may encounter, but it is not real until you actually experience a crisis for yourself. Some other myths in the book are all teachers treat their students the same and all students will perform above average. Children come from all different backgrounds and start school in different places. There is no way that teachers can treat every single student the same and ensure that they will all be above average. Overall the book was full of myths that show what other people think of teachers.

Walter E William’s starts his column talking about the eighteen to thirty year old “snowflakes”. He then goes on to compare professors and college students to military officers and Navy Seals. I do not see the correlation. In the next paragraph, he talks about what kind of future the “snowflakes” will make. Although I believe we should still keep the classic works and teach about those who laid the foundation for our education, I think it will bode well for our country to be progressive. We must move on from the past, change is good in the long run. Next, he begins talking about the safe spaces colleges are beginning to incorporate. What is wrong with wanting to feel safe? Everyone wants to feel safe. In his summary

In addition, the report used “students crashed a faculty meeting”, suggesting a deliberate interruption or a planned intervention, where they argued and ruined what was once a fine meeting; however, using the word “crashed” implies a destructive outcome and a unfavorable guest. The word ‘confrontation’ in the quote by Mr. Weinstein when he allegedly had a ‘confrontation’ with the ‘protesters’, suggest that Mr. Weinstein was being the peacemaker or victim in face of a hostile ‘ready to fight at any minute’ group of students. Moreover, “After shouting at Mr. Weinstein for several minutes” suggest that the students left all rational reasoning behind and started to promptly ‘shout’, thus resulted in the ‘beratement’ of the professor.

to hold your hand as a child so to speak, and remind you on a daily

When my teacher assigned our new essay, I felt as this one might be a bit of a struggle. I was too busy worrying about my SAT and I kept having second thoughts about what I planned to do. Then, I remembered how terrible my school teachers were and decided why not just write about that. Throughout my school life I’ve encountered many teachers who I would consider to be bad teachers. I find it funny how some people only become teachers, so they can get an easy paying job. A bad teacher is someone who assigns work and sits back in their desk, one who assigns the same type of assignment, and one who gives up because he or she can’t get the students to calm down.