A few months ago, philosophy professor Keith Parsons made a blogpost addressing his freshman students. Parsons points out that he hasn’t taught freshmen in years, and while pleased that most of his students were putting genuine effort into his class, his blogpost features his frustration with those whom he deems to be slacking instead. He blames this on freshmen’s high school teachers who left them not only unprepared for college but also oblivious to that fact, Parsons insisting that “Teachers are evaluated on the basis of learning outcomes, generally as measured by standardized tests, and that, “your high school curriculum would have served you better had it focused more on developing your listening skills rather than drilling you on test-taking.” In turn, he resents that his own method of teaching, namely lecture that requires said listening skills, has been condemned as of late for not catering to these students that some believe shouldn’t be expected to be able to learn in such a different teaching environment than what they have been conditioned for. This compels Parsons to remind us of the academic freedom that university professors are known for and will continue to exercise in their classes. His overall message to not only his students, but to all college freshmen, is to abandon the method of learning drilled into us by our high school teachers and move forward to the ways higher education.
What Professor Parsons doesn’t take into account is the fact that high school teachers are just as much victims of an ineffective system as their students are. Considering how long it has been since Parsons himself has been a student, I could understand his overlooking this. However, as a college freshman who still has the memory of high school teachers and their situation fresh in my mind, I can say from personal experience that high school teachers are just as frustrated, if not more so, as Parsons with the way they teach. Of course, they have no choice in the matter unlike Parsons, because of one of the fundamental differences between high school and university: funding. In a high school setting, funding, and subsequently the money for faculty paychecks, is received when the school produces good results. High school teachers are therefore forced to teach via the system set up by those who provide that funding, regardless of whether the teachers find what they have to teach is actually beneficial or not to their students. On the other hand, university professors, as Parsons mentions, enjoy the freedom to teach as they please because their paycheck is not determined by the grades their students make. A university’s funding largely comes from tuition and miscellaneous fees the students themselves pay, so whether they fail or not, the professor still gets paid.
In short, Parsons expresses his distaste for those who want to restrict how he can teach his students, but doesn’t realize that high school teachers could feel the same way and actually have to endure such restriction. I myself have had several teachers that wish more than anything that they could teach things that actually matter rather than just turn their students into “test-taking machines that wouldn’t know real education if it smacked them across the face,” as one of my favorite teachers once said.
Professor Parsons, perhaps you do already acknowledge that high school teachers’ frustration with how they must teach matches your own. If so, then my apologies, but based on your blogpost it seems as though you have no intentions of trying to make a difference, and would rather just ensure that we know your way of teaching is superior and tell students that they will have to adapt to your preferences. Instead, I would challenge you to actually take on the source of the problem, not high school teachers who would give anything to be able to truly prepare us for your higher education, but those who are shackling them down.
What Professor Parsons doesn’t take into account is the fact that high school teachers are just as much victims of an ineffective system as their students are. Considering how long it has been since Parsons himself has been a student, I could understand his overlooking this. However, as a college freshman who still has the memory of high school teachers and their situation fresh in my mind, I can say from personal experience that high school teachers are just as frustrated, if not more so, as Parsons with the way they teach. Of course, they have no choice in the matter unlike Parsons, because of one of the fundamental differences between high school and university: funding. In a high school setting, funding, and subsequently the money for faculty paychecks, is received when the school produces good results. High school teachers are therefore forced to teach via the system set up by those who provide that funding, regardless of whether the teachers find what they have to teach is actually beneficial or not to their students. On the other hand, university professors, as Parsons mentions, enjoy the freedom to teach as they please because their paycheck is not determined by the grades their students make. A university’s funding largely comes from tuition and miscellaneous fees the students themselves pay, so whether they fail or not, the professor still gets paid.
In short, Parsons expresses his distaste for those who want to restrict how he can teach his students, but doesn’t realize that high school teachers could feel the same way and actually have to endure such restriction. I myself have had several teachers that wish more than anything that they could teach things that actually matter rather than just turn their students into “test-taking machines that wouldn’t know real education if it smacked them across the face,” as one of my favorite teachers once said.
Professor Parsons, perhaps you do already acknowledge that high school teachers’ frustration with how they must teach matches your own. If so, then my apologies, but based on your blogpost it seems as though you have no intentions of trying to make a difference, and would rather just ensure that we know your way of teaching is superior and tell students that they will have to adapt to your preferences. Instead, I would challenge you to actually take on the source of the problem, not high school teachers who would give anything to be able to truly prepare us for your higher education, but those who are shackling them down.