Crossroads
From time to time, I still hear the argument that one should exercise a strict disciplinary regimen so students would be better prepared for what’s demanded of them in the industry. And I’m always flabbergasted.
Because for me, in my experience, that automatically translates into being shitty to students so they will be prepared for being treated shittily in the industry later.
Now, I’m known for giving students a lot of slack in every respect, from small things like not terrorizing them with time-stamp submission deadlines to checking if anything’s wrong with them if they haven’t been showing up for some time. So why do I do that.
First off, I’m a university teacher. I’m neither a parent nor a K-12 teacher, and I strongly assume that each student has been subjected to more than their fair share of attempts at disciplining them over their past nineteen or so years, exceptions notwithstanding. Which either worked out or didn’t work out, but it’s not my job to get students ready for extended potty training in societal discipline.
Then, I don’t know where they all will end up and what kind of discipline will be expected of them. Most likely, to return to that easy example, they will have deadlines later in life, and I know a lot about deadlines from working in the advertising industry. Did I learn to keep deadlines there, solo or as part of a team, from having had to deliver term papers with time stamps? Hell, no! And I didn’t even have to deliver term papers on time anyway because I could always have a second or even third shot at them, which is rare for tasks in the industry, except for cases with higher-up snafus, where it is the norm. Such differences apply to a whole bunch of other things too. Life is complex, who would’ve known, and that we use the same term for similar things doesn’t miraculously make them the same.
Next, being “strict” almost always includes a severe intolerance to not being addressed in the appropriate register, i.e., not being addressed as respectfully as one’s academic status is supposed to require. Well, I had my fair share of insults on the receiving end, and I could show you emails from students you wouldn’t believe. So, what about it. Students still have close to no authority, and harsh language is often their only way to lash out, to make themselves heard. (Same in society, frequently enough, for folks on the lower rungs of the social ladder.) Thus, I never tone-police down. I only tone-police up, and then with teeth in it.
Also, while the human brain’s cognitive development certainly doesn’t “peak” or anything at around twenty-five, as the forever perpetuated myth on social media would have it, there are developmental phases that extend at least into the early thirties. And wherever certain developmental phases are located at any point during one’s twenties (whereby many of these phases might have, and often indeed have, already sufficiently matured early on during that time), people in their twenties are more prone to errors and make decisions they later regret. Plus, they’ve almost certainly had fewer opportunities to accumulate experiences and learn from them, and they carry a lot of “unknown unknowns” around that have yet to be turned into “known unknowns.” (And later, one hopes, into “knowns.”)
Finally, as possibly the most important aspect, there’s this. Being shitty to students in order to prepare them for being treated shittily in the industry would not only mean that we, as humanity, would keep being shitty to each other forever. It would, moreover, normalize being treated shittily in the industry, which it shouldn’t. Instead, students should develop a good sense for how things could be instead; that shittiness doesn’t have to be tolerated, and that one should be ready to organize if need be and push back.
If you have something valuable to add or some interesting point to discuss, I’ll be looking forward to meeting you at Mastodon!