We academics and lecturers are on the frontlines facing this war. It comes from two sides: from old professors that want to keep their grounds secure and safe. They will defend their grounds at any cost, even attacking other people who work with you. They will throw ad hominem attacks and change the narrative. They will look down upon you and because of their stature and reputation, people will believe them without doing the necessary research to see if what they say is true.
On the other side, we have, as you discussed in your post, these students who think that the world revolves around them. We need to reschedule, as you noted, tests and essays because it does not suit their schedules, as if the world works like that!? If we do not give them marks, even if their stuff is wrong, we are to be blamed. They demand extra marks, re-marks, and everything else but they could not be bothered to pitch up for class, could not be bothered to do the readings, the list can go on and on.
And the sad thing is these people are "released" into the world where life-altering decisions are made, where we interact with them and they just steamroll over you.
Sorry for the mini rant on your rant! Hahah, thank you for sharing this, people are these days so self-centered that it is rather scary. (I had two students like this; maybe I should write a rant about these ordeals.)
In any case, I hope things will become better soon otherwise we are in for a bumpy ride.
Yes!! Why is it that we find ourselves sandwich between them!? Most of the old folk in pur department retired last year, however we still keep the around as research fellows... This sounds terrible when said in English 🤣... My point 👉 Technically they aren't part of the department anymore, I mean they don't have offices, they aren't part of meetings, we see them once every month. They still delight the way we do things, down to the way the kitchen is set up, our tests are to challenging according to a few and that's why our students fail (somehow they can't accept that maybe it the students 🤔).
I had a high plagiarism on an assignment today, once again... The student is repeating, had plenty of warning, for multiple lecturer's... We decided to call a board hearing. The student approached a few of us today and asked why we hate her 😅... We don't, you're not following the rules. Can't give you a degree if you can't follow rules 😅. Can't have you running into a municipality claiming to be an urban planner when you can't even plan an assignment.
Please do post your rant!! My co-worker said the other day "we need to speak up and listen to one another, these students, they will kill us or drive us crazy". Don't know about you, but I don't have time to go mad now 🤣🤣. Not yet!
Oh yes, same here, but they keep their offices (in some cases). We have very high profile professors at the department, so it is a good thing to keep them around I guess? I think that is their reasoning. Alas, it is an interesting space!
That is exactly their reasoning and I do not understand why? I mean, I had students who got mad at me because I dared schedule ad hoc unscheduled class exercises (as indicated in the module framework which they do not read). They obviously missed them and did not receive a mark, but it is all of a sudden my fault and not theirs. How did we end up here?
🤣🤣 Aaa you know that saying "the customer is always right". I think students view themselves as customers 🤣
And the university does as well! That is why they come down so hard on us if we fail too many students irrespective if they understood the work or not! (At least in my case haha.)
!LUV