Pay attention, I am about to make a surprising announcement. Our students? They’re not all stupid. I know that this assertion will come, to some, as no surprise; others are rolling their eyes at me and poising their fingers to fire off a response, probably accompanied by a tale or two of students who were, in fact, stupid. Calm down, I know we all have those stories, but I would like to remind you that I said not all students are stupid, some are. Some are so frustratingly and mind-numbingly dumb that we can only throw our hands up in the air and hope that they can somehow make their way in life. As for the others, well it is my contention that a vast majority of them are self-centered, egotistical post-adolescents. They are mostly 18-20, unsophisticated and unaware of the rest of the world. How is this a big fucking surprise? Wow 18 year old kids, who have lived their lives in their parent’s house, usually cloistered in the same town, economic class and school, whose lives for the past five years have revolved around their grades are self-centered and unsophisticated? Knock me over with a feather.

I am forced to think back to my own 18 year old self. Shipped off to school 200 miles away, I had never ventured outside of the town that I lived in, I went to Catholic school, and while my parents were hippie type semi-intellectuals, they were still working class. I had never eaten Chinese food, I had never met someone who was not Christian, I had never really known rich kids. But I was opened minded and hungry for information. One of my first friends there was Jewish, she invited me over for holidays and celebrations, she made kugal and matzo balls to break the fast of Yom Kippor. She patiently answered all of my questions about Judaism, gave me books to read and took me to temple. I had professors who opened new worlds to me, gave me more books, sent me to art exhibits and plays. Slowly but surely I became less self-centered, more sophisticated and I thank all of the people who helped me do so. I remember these things when I hear other faculty complain about students and I think, yes they are frustrating, but isn’t college where students learn the lessons that help them out of this mold.

Will all students take the opportunity to expand their world? Of course not, but some will, and instead of assuming their failures, I would like to encourage their learning. I must admit that, frankly, I am flabbergasted by the resistance so many faculty have to actually teaching. Silly me, I thought that was our job. I can not count how many times I have heard professors lament that students don’t get it. And yet there is an all compassing reluctance to actually teach students what you think they should get. It’s in the material right? They should read it, yeah cause that always works. And forget actually encouraging questions, good pedagogy obviously means mocking and destroying students who ask speak out in class, and then blame their lack of participation on not studying. I guess this rant comes too close to break when I am so frustrated by the mechanisms of ideology that restrict students and defeat faculty. But I will continue to try to teach students, I owe that to the people who taught me.