I just need to vent for a sec

I am grading these papers and they are really pathetic!!! :(

I am a TA for a college course, okay, these are COLLEGE students. I can't believe the effortless, careless assignments that these people are turning in. If I were the prof, I would hand them all back and tell them all to do the assignment over again. They are college students!!! And there are basic grammar errors all over the place, not to mention that the majority of them have NO logic and are flat out answering the questions wrong. I just don't get. And the thing that pisses me off is that I feel that the prof's are easy on the students because it is a commuter school with an easy admission policy. But so fucking what?!?!? It is still a university and the students should be challenged just as they would at any other university - how will they ever learn without being challenged?!?! And basic grammar errors should not be allowed period!!! I can understand that not everyone will grasp the concepts and that's okay, but when you have students that don't know how to write a complete sentence or where to place a fucking period - that's a problem.

I'm sorry Moon!!
What class are you TAing for? and can I ask what school?
I am TAing for my advisor's History 271 class (US 1865- present) and so far it's pretty good. But ANYTHING in the college level is better than my high school students! 17 year olds are lazy bums!!

i truly think that in some ways the internet and other technologies have made us lazy. I know i can't spell and i get lazy and let spell checker get it.

that being said i do think my 13 yr old is the laziest there is.

Ugh. That sucks! (((HUGS)))

My brother-in-law teaches a writing class at a local college and he runs into the same problems you are. Kids handing in shitty work and basically not giving a damn. However, because of some red tape with the adminstration, he has to pass the majority of the class.

I have the same problem with law school, but speaking from a student's perspective. Here, the profs don't actually teach you what THE LAW is (they think it's beneath them) and instead spend all their time lecturing about theory and policy (which is pretty much useless for people who want to be REAL lawyers). Yet, on the final exam, worth 100% of your grade, they ONLY test black letter law. Students who are misled by the prof's lectures and spend all their time learning/thinking about theory and policy almost always do poorly. This is one of the worst cases of bait-and-switch I have ever seen! Luckily, I knew what the deal was going in so I didn't fall for any of the BS.

But the REALLY scary thing is that law school is graded on a forced curve, meaning that even if you get an A, it doesn't mean that you know the material in any objective sense, but only that you are the least dumb of all the dumbasses. I look at some of my classmates and SHUDDER to think that in 3 years, they will be charging innocent people MONEY to completely screw up their lives. Some of my classmates are so bad that I wouldn't want them to represent even my worst enemy. :rolleyes:

It's a statistics and research methods class at Northeastern Illinois University.
I love the prof that I am TA for - I think she is a great teacher, and there are many ways that she is challenging, so I don't mean to sound like I am bashing her. I have seen this happen in A LOT of the courses I have taken and I think it is a huge disservice to the students and, in the long run, society. Giving students credit for some of the work that they hand in is sending the message that it's okay to slack. :( And I am sure that a lot of these students could do better.

Spelling is one thing - I know a lot of very intelligent, motivated people who can't spell for shit and that's okay - but if you are handing in an assignment, the least you can do is use the spell check like Nessa does. ;)

And I agree, curves suck! They are great for students who just want the grade, but what the hell do they teach people? Life doesn't work on a grading curve.

I hear ya Moon...I TA'd a couple courses last year at the 1st and 2nd year level. It was bad, but our profs were really strict about spelling etc and I would end up feeling bad due to the poor grades I'd give these kids. The average for one of the classes was around 55-60%.

I would rather a prof give low grades for poor work...because honestly...I hate working my butt off on a paper, making sure it's perfect....and seeing that the joe blow next to me can't even write...and still made a decent grade.

Ticks me off!!!

Nadine.

Annie, I think so far my class is averaging about the same 50-60%. It's really sad.

And Nadine, I soooooo agree. I have had classes where I worked my arse off for an A and then I would see work from other students that earned a B and it was C-R-A-P!!! :mad: :mad: :mad: