I am a college professor. We started our new semester last week. Here is a summary of an actual conversation I had with a student who asked to drop my class (after the 2nd day):
Student: Can you sign my drop card?
Me: Okay. Can I ask why you decided to drop?
Student: Yeah, I think you are unfairly putting your students on the spot.
Me: I don’t know if I agree with that. I’m just asking them questions about the reading I assigned on the first day.
Student: Well, in my other classes, the professors just lecture and let us take notes in peace.
Me: That’s fine, but that’s not how I run my class. I like to see if the students actually read the material, rather than assuming they did. Peppering them with questions also keeps them on their toes. Don’t you think?
Student: Whatever, can you just sign my card?
I sign his card. As he walks away, he turns around, grins and calls me an A$$shole.
I just hope this young man’s parents aren’t sacrificing too much to send him to college. But they probably are.
Wow, obviously no home training.
FWIW, I'm in the real estate business. We see these types when they graduate and want to be managers. In the end we usually throw them out when they can't adjust to respecting their neighbors right to privacy. If the parents are co-signers on the lease they are usually stunned when I talk down to them because of the piss poor job they've done.
I modeled the class after the "self packed physics" at UCSD. The weekly lectures were kept on a pace that could achieve an A for everyone interested in doing so. I explained each technique required to accomplish the assignments in the first hour. The 2nd and 3rd hours were "lab" time with students working on writing the software. I was available to review work, answer questions and offer suggestions. In time, the most proficient students would jump into the fray to mentor their fellow students.
At the end of 3 1/2 years, I relocated 25 miles north. My new job assignments no longer allowed me to teach in the evening. The co-sponsor for the class, Regional Occupational Program, informed me that 91% of my students had been hired by DEC or IBM over the course of those 3 1/2 years. Someday I will return to teaching when I don't need to generate lots of income. It's not in the cards with 60 hour weeks as the norm.
BTW, it was typical to have a first night with 60 people in the classroom. Most classes finished with 35 people. It was no piece of cake, but the "finishers" walked out well prepared.
I wish more teachers had that attitude. I rarely read anything, although I took lots of notes in class. I spent way to much time cramming for exams rather than "learning" the material.
[I'm going to assume that your class is taught in a run-of-the-mill lecture format, i.e., professor lectures, students take notes, etc.]
Put yourself in your students' shoes for one moment. If all you are doing is asking a question, that's fine, but if you are openly "peppering" them with questions, you are walking a fine line between testing a student's knowledge (in possibly a Socratic way?) and outright humiliating him in front of his peers.
Education is a business, and teachers (professors, instructors, and so forth) are delivering a service to their students. And, I, for one, would drop out of a class if the instructor openly treated me in a condescending manner. [That said, I wouldn't call the instructor obscene names to his or her face; that's just nasty.]
I was a Journalism major and everyone in the school had to take and hated Media Law. The central reason was that you had to read. He would call on people every day. Also he gave a quiz every day that was open note and he gave study questions for each day. Really it was an easy class if you did the reading and answered the study questions before class, unfortunately most people don’t want to.
keep fighting the good fight....someday hopefully, it’ll make a difference......
The disrespect shown by some students is appalling.
An acquaintance of mine was screamed at by an undergraduate who was unhappy with his grade. He used the F word and threatened him. I asked the professor what he did about it and he said nothing. If he reported it, nothing would have happened and the mud would have stuck on him, not the student.
Another acquaintance flunked a student who plagiarized a paper. (Passed in a paper identical to another student in the class.) Both flunked. One of the students made a formal complaint to the dean’s office and demanded the professor be fired.