My first university teaching job was at a university most of you would know because of their basketball prowess. Just before the end of my first semester, two members of the basketball team came in and asked for their copy of the econ final exam. I said it wasn't for two more weeks and they said they knew that but they wanted an advanced copy to study. I said no and, after five minutes of arguing, they left. Two minutes after that one of the most liberal econ profs was in my office hotter than a two dollar pistol wanting to know why I wouldn't give them a copy of the final. I told him I don't do those kind of things...it would not be fair to the other students.
I was then given a lecture on how these were disadvantage people who need a break to get through college...that I needed to have compassion for them.
Really?
I proceeded to tell him that these two ball players were not good enough to make it in the NBA so they were going to have to find a non-sports job. So they get hired because they have a University degree. Within a few hours, that employer is going to know they can't even form a proper English sentence, let alone be worth their wage. They will be fired. But the real cost is not losing their job. The real cost is that any future graduate from that university will likely be passed over by that employer, shutting the door on those who earned their degree.
He looked at me...smoke coming from under his collar...and stormed out of the room. He could not defend his position.
I never had another basketball player in my class.
Good for you. I spent a few years teaching in a teacher certification program. I had a reputation as a no-nonsense, hold-students-feet-to-the-fire instructor. I had more than one colleague ask why I was so tough on my students. I told them that the future of our country is our children. We were going to inflict the public school system with these students. They’re going to be holding the future of our country in their hands. So, yes, I could and would hold them to a higher standard. Fascinatingly enough, students loved me. I treated them, not like perpetual students, but like they were going to be teachers one day, and gave them the tools they needed to succeed in that capacity.