And It All Started with a Red Ink Pen…Student Rant, Part 2

I am all for raising non-narcissistic children who have a healthy dose of high self-esteem. But when esteem boosting means throwing accountability out of the window, we have a problem.

I told you all in a previous post that I want to do something that I have never done before: complain about my students. Here are some behaviors that I observed across campus that drove me absolutely crazy last semester.

1. ) Using ChatGPT for open-ended, opinion-based questions. As an educator, I am not one to fight technology. As a matter of fact, I use technology to take excuses from my students. As much as possible, students want to avoid work: that is the nature of young people, but lately, they can come up with some whoppers. Their excuses sound something like this: “Oh, Dr. Jay, I had to sit in the hospital with my baby cousin.” “Dr. Jay, I just can’t download the textbook and when I do, I don’t know what page we’re on.” “Dr. Jay, I had to work until 20 minutes before your class and had to fight traffic. There were no good parking spaces.” “Dr. Jay, I had to run home right quick and do…” Well, having a school function, being sick with the flu, or being called away to the armed services are legitimate reasons for missing class. However, a student never has to miss work with me. Their notes and assignments are always posted somewhere! Sometimes, I even record my lectures and post them to the Learning Management System. But I had one student who had the unmitigated gall to tell me, “I can’t watch your…