Vent about students
 

I teach an introductory honors class in American Government at my university. About 10,000 students are enrolled here. It is a small class consisting of only 13 students. Most of them are first year students. These students are supposed to be the best and the brightest. I typically love teaching these classes.

On the first day of class (Monday) I asked the students to fill out a short survey. It was anonymous. One of the questions I asked them was to name the 2 senators from Illinois. Only five of the students could do this. I was not surprised that they did not know Senator Durban. But three of the students could not name either senator. Barack Obama is from Illinois. How could they not know this??? Then three of the students did not know who the vice president is. I am shocked. Now I am getting sick to my stomach. Six of the students could not name the Democratic presidential and vice presidential candidates, although six of them did name Obama. Finally only ten of the students could identify McCain, although one student did know that the Republican candidate was someone named John. I don't know about all of you, but both scare and frustrate me. Oh, I should also mention that five students could not list their favorite book or the last book they read for pleasure. Of course, they all had a favorite movie.

Class tomorrow sure is going to be interesting! I think the "mean" professor is going to make an appearance.:eek: How can I get these kids to care?

:D Tell 'em that they've all started out the class with an "F" and they'll now have to work to bring their grade up!

Too bad you have an odd number of students. Otherwise I'd suggest maybe doing a project involving two teams trying to explain the political process we have.

I would have made them watch the DC and the RC with a full report, written, double spaced starting tonight. Now, just because you didn't do this today, rest assured that CNN has each speech on their site for viewing. Every college kid has an Internet account. lol

Seriously, I do know what you mean. When I was teaching college the students amazed me at how little they knew or how much they THOUGHT they knew. Fun times.

It does not surprise me. Anyone who has watched Jay Leno on his Jay Walking knows that people don't know much of anything these days, even the Education Majors.

Honestly, I'm appalled that so few young adults seem to read these days.

In my experience at least. I will mention on IM programs, the phone, wherever, "Ok I'm going to take off for a bit, going to read", and that's usually met with "YOU READ?? :eek:" Yeah, what a crazy notion! I read for pleasure! :rolleyes:

I like the ideas of some sort of project or paper, maybe assign each side with rep and dem and let them debate the platforms the candidates are running on.. and maybe the odd person out can work on both or take a few and create an independent party and their view of things?,

it is sad when my specially challenged child knows more about politics, this child said when he got his state ID and reg to vote he would never ever vote, but now as he watches the news on the tv, he told me the other day he wants to vote and will I show him how to vote, I said yes.

I must admit when my kids were allowed calculators to do their math at school I raised heII, and when they tried to do away with civics and a few other classes I was speaking against it and so far as of last yr all those key programs are still intact, but it would appear they didn't grasp much in civics, I think the politicians have something to do with this,

It use to be an honor to be a senator or rep of the house, now its a dang good paying job with plenty of perks, hard to take interest in something you may not respect, but as I have kept telling my son, you need to vote and speak your mind through voting find a person you believe in and vote for them,
and I explained how if the one in office is falling short of his promises or what he said he would do you can also send a mess by voting the old dead wood out of office

Sorry Barb to wander, it irks me they take no pride in knowledge, one must never stop seeking knowledge

Gosh, these kids must not watch ANY tv, how could they miss that!!:eek:

What scares me is that they intend to vote without educating themselves on the issues or the candidates.

It really is a shame, but I blame that on the parents!

I enjoyed one of the statements in last nights speech saying it's going to take more than just government on some tv program to educate our youth. It'll take a father to turn off the tv and sit down with the kids and help them study!

Most of my roomates, thought it was so cool that I knew so much about politics when I was in college. None of them had much of a clue, nor did they try to educate themselves. One of the issues is that it 'seems' soooo complex, etc. To me, it just takes a little confidence and to actually try to read a headline or two each day/week. Before you know it, voila...you are up to speed!

Congrats to you on your little quiz! American government/history/politics was always a fav of mine!

And it's sad, sad, sad that none had a favorite fun read during the summer!

My boys Will be growing up with politcal talk in the home. They will also know how to read stats sheets, thanks to sports.

Parenting the next generation takes initiative!!!

Thanks for this thread! :hug:

FYI in the Commonwealth of MA, the senators are John Kerry and Edward Kennedy! Marty Meehan is a Rep ;):p

Perhaps you would like to borrow my 11 year old to shame your students. He would have answered every one of your questions except the second Illinois senator - don't think he would have known Durbin. He does surprise me sometimes, though. Oh and he probably read 40 books (long chapter books - Harry Potter size) this summer, so he could have answered that question too, but might not have remembered which one was the last one he read because sometimes he reads more than one book at a time.

Last week, I "caught" him listening to a news talk radio program in the wee hours. He then explained to me a number of key differences in the two candidates' platforms.:rolleyes:

This year, he so impressed his scoutmaster that he allowed him to go for the Citizenship in the Nation merit badge. They don't normally let kids do that at his age - usually it is for the high school age scouts. I thought we were going to have to really work with him on it, but he knew so much more than I thought he would. He had to learn about the Declaration of Independence, Constitution, Bill of Rights, know about and explain the 3 branches of the national government, had to understand different agencies, how laws are proposed and enacted, etc. It was a huge amount of work for a kid his age, but he did it. He started later than everyone else and finished faster. :p

It would warm your heart to hear an 11 year old describe the differences between a republic and a democracy.

What would your students think of being shown up by a 6th grader?:eek:

Part of this was a mom brag, part of it was that there is some hope for the future.

Thats great Holly, what even makes your sons story better, is he did it on his own, self taught, that's a great way to obtains knowledge. I would be very proud of him, like Gladys said some of this is due to parenting, which I totally agree with her parenting is needed if it could be more than one parent all the better if not then you do what i did for almost ten years you have to be dad and I had to try and be mom too, no wonder i got a split personality :yikes: Barb I would be interested in hearing what you decide to do, sorry they let you down like that, and maybe a good way to start it is to let them know how disappointed you are in their lack of want(knowledge) and lack of caring.

Barb,
You should send the info in your thread to both political presidential candidates...
it's not always the teacher's fault that kids aren't educated. When I worked in the elementary schools, there were backpacks that were never opened...letters from the teacher, homework papers, etc from days before that were never taken out.
It's so much easier to plunk the kids in front of the TV than to sit and ask them questions, or help them with homework, or have reading time.

Our nation is falling behind due to our lack of dedication to producing tomorrow's well-educated citizens...shame on us as a country. It's so much more important to have the latest gizmo than to give our children a joy of learning.

Thanks everyone for your replies.

Holly, When can your son come to my class?:D

I did tell the students how disappointed I was today, and that their lack of knowledge actually scares me. We talked today aobut the importance of being informed, whether they were going to vote, how to register to vote, etc. I think that some of them were embarrassed for themselves or their classmates/generation, and some just did not care.

I also had them read an article that suggests that all high schools have automatic voter registration available, and that all students have to participate in a service learning project where they are involved in government in some way. They seemed to like this idea, and many of them wanted to blame their schools for their lack of information. They said that the focus in their classes was on history and not government. I then asked them if they did not feel that they had a civic responsibility to at the very least be informed.

I do have a paper assignment where they have to analyze the current election. So they are going to be "forced" into paying attention.

I just hope that by the end of the semester more of them will be reading newspapers, and will realize the importance of paying more attention to the world outside of our university.

i like the voter idea, but it cant be forced on someone, would be great to say to pass civics you must register but that in itself goes against the constitution...

I hope you are able to get through to them, I think today's news of a female vice presidential candidate, could be a good discussion like i said elsewhere it will be an election of first

At least some of them had the good sense to be embarrassed.

Well, they'll certainly have a lot to consider with the election after today's announcement!

Sounds like some of those "honor" students were just looking for slack elective to round out their GPA.

My daughter was telling me that she "doesn't need to take French" this year as she just needs any second language to get into Uni. All the rest of her friends have elected to take "sign language". :rolleyes:

The good news is the canvas is almost blank, and you should have a great sense of accomplishment by the end of the term. :D

Cherie