No…no, I have to admit I haven’t. Are those actual example from your own experience (he asked with a gnawing sense of impending horror)?
Yes.
The student who asked about the genitals was at the time in an Operating Systems class, and then followed up the response (‘That is a very inappropriate question for this class.’) with ‘Myself, I prefer the male genitalia because there’s so much more you can do with it.’
The pickle-cat guy was in C++ Programming at the time, supposedly coding a simple command line program that cauclated interest on a loan.
That should say ‘calculated’ not whatever it was I typed.
As you can see, I teach no such classes where questions about genitals should come up, yet they have.
The question that sticks out the most in my mind though was the student who raised his hand in the middle of Operating Systems class to ask ‘Ms. Six, what are you doing after class? Would you like to go smoke a joint with me?’
Whee! Let’s take the actions of one college student, and based on that, make a gross generalization about all college students!
I am so fucking sick of that. We don’t judge older generations by the actions of one or two of you; could either give us the same respect or shut the fuck up?
As treis said, there are a lot of college students who work, a lot, for their educations. I have a deal with my parents: they will, for the first two years, pay what tuition doesn’t cover. I’m responsible for 50% of that starting junior year, and I repay all my loans without their help. So I worked full-time over the summer, work part-time during school, and work full time over breaks. I also work damn hard in my classes.
So, yeah, thanks for the stereotype, man. I love that shit.
Having gone to a 10,000+ student school, and been around probably 1,000 college students, I’d say everything discussed in this thread so far is accurate.
It’s admirable that you’re paying your way through, but like you said, it’s not a good idea to generalize based on the actions of one student.
Okay, that deserves an “eek”. Clearly there are some inane questions. I stand corrected. (And damn thankful I haven’t run into any such students myself yet.)
Bravo.
A student who understands the concept of responsibility is most welcome in my class. Of course, I’d have to fight off the other profs, because they would want such a student just as much as I would.
Thankfully those are very few compared to actual questions, although I have to admit getting extremely irritated when someone asks the exact same question 12 times about a very simple concept.
Something like this:
Me: GUI stands for Graphical User Interface.
Student: What does GUI stand for?
Me: Graphical User Interface.
Student: So what does GUI stand for again?
Me: Graphical User Interface.
Student: Can you say that one more time I’m not sure I caught it.
Me: Graphical User Interface.
Student: I still don’t understand what GUI stands for.
Me: It’s on page six. Paragraph two. First sentence. In bold type.
Student: What’s a GUI again?
…
As irritating as that is, though, it’s even worse when a coworker, someone who used to be a professional COBOL coder, asks that question at least 3 times every semester. To date, I have shown her no less than 9 times how to install Windows XP. She asked me to show her again yesterday.
Having asked the same thing to my school’s Dean of Freshmen (after conversation which ensued upon bringing a fruit-basket to her office- purely to suck up, as she was teaching a class with entirely subjective grading), I have an answer to this- Flunk out first semester, go on probation and choose to drop out rather than flunk formally. Work a few years without a degree, realize how miserable it makes you, and then start anew with a brand new motivation.
Somewhat more on topic: Case Western Reserve, where my best friend from HS goes, doesn’t count first-semester Freshman F’s. He, who graduated HS with something like a 4.5 but has almost no willpower, fell into drinking and partying in about a week, then failed two classes. Scared the shit out of him. Works his ass off, now, and wouldn’t touch liquor or pot if his life depended on it.
A system that works.
We’ve been getting a lot of threads like that lately here.
Which brings up an interesting question: If the Hindenburg had been designed to run on helium, Winston Churchill had been a cross-dresser and there was twice as much rain as normal in western Poland in 1939, would Prince Harry have gone to the costume party dressed as Pee Wee Herman?
Mazel tov. Wanna cookie?
I go to the same university that Airman does, and my experiences largely parallel his. When I was taking general education courses, I had to deal with freshmen who couldn’t be arsed to answer a single question. A couple of them had the temerity to bitch about their grades because they refused to participate and turned in the bare minimum necessary. As far as they were concerned, “they” were footing the bill, so they were entitled to pass without effort on their part.
That said, I know there are other plenty of students who take their educations seriously, regardless of whoever pays for it. These people are a joy to share a class with. They contribute to the discussion, they seem to enjoy the subject matter, they come to class prepared, and they’re happy to be an active member of the class. On the other hand, people who don’t do anything but bitch and moan and do nothing but weigh the class down.
Robin
Genitals come up in the classes you teach, eh? Spiffy. 
Mr. Stoner, that’s rude to extend your offer only to me. Have you brought enough for everyone?
I’m probably going to get jumped on for this, but…
I’m a freshman. I know I don’t know everything. In fact I’m sure I ask plenty of “stupid” questions, but nothing drives me more crazy then the “grown ups” in my classes. I share this opinion with many of my fellow students, as we’ve had many discussions on this very topic.
Don’t get me wrong, I have the utmost respect for any person who is willing to get out there and educate themselves. And this certainly isn’t a generalization, there’s always exceptions to the rule.
BUT-Jesus people! Don’t kiss teacher’s ass just because you are the same age!
Inevitably, the person looks something like this:
She’s wearing a Juicy Couture sweatsuit (with matching hat and high heels) and parked in the front row (nothing wrong with that). She has out her tape recorder (which the teacher explained there was no reason to use), four notebooks (which she doesn’t write a thing in) and lap top (which she uses to spend the period drawing in MS Paint). Every few minutes, she has to pipe in and reiterate what the teacher last said.
Prof: “Lincoln suspended Habeas Corpus during the Civil War”
Her: “So what you’re saying is… during the Civil War, Habeas Corpus was suspended.”
Prof: “Yes. By Lincoln.”
Her: “Abraham Lincoln?”
Prof: “Yes, Abraham Lincoln- the 16th President of the United States.”
Her: “Ah yes! ((laughing at her apparent wit and intelligence)) THAT Abraham Lincoln! The one who suspended Habeas Corpus during the Civil War! That reminds me of McCarthyism. That happened when we were kids, right Prof?”
I swear that’s pretty much word for word from my class the other day. Similar things happen in other classes.
It’s trivial, I know. Still bugs me, though. :mad:
Don’t you mean “stiffy”?
::flees thread in shame::
Well, there you go, right there.
It’s really too bad that the one thing that would improve these people is the one thing they do not have by definition. (And I include myself in this, looking backward.)
Or, as someone once said, youth is wasted on the young.
I must be especially irritable today, because, my lord, did this post ever piss me off.
Maybe it’s that I’m your target demographic. I’m in my early 20s. I’ve never taken time off school to work. My parents pay my tuition and give me some money each month. But you know what? I work my fucking ass off. And I work hard enough that it deserves to get out of your fucking quotation marks.
And I REALLY resent that you somehow seem to have insight on to how I should be living my life.
I hate disrespectful students as much as the next girl. I don’t see a whole bunch of them. The only people who study in my discipline are there because they love it, because there’s no other reason to be there.
Maybe I’m annoyed because I’m sitting here doing homework (okay, taking a break to eat dinner, but my point stands) while my friends are all out at a bar. My friends (who mostly work and don’t attend school) ALWAYS have more time than me. I turn down invitations all the time to work. In fact, I’m sitting in the same cafe in which I did my FIVE HOURS of assigned homework THE FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL.
So no, you don’t have the right to say anything at all about me.
LaurAnge… PREACH IT, SISTER! 
Well, hopefully only in conversation and not literally. Although I do have one student who sits with his hand on his nuts all the time. He’s quite weird, and is constantly getting busted for trying to download porn on school computers.
I wouldn’t dare ask, for fear that he might actually have enough for everyone.
Only that one time I had to tell a student ‘You will delete that file immediately and never, ever download anything like that again on a school computer or I will delete your user account and you will never get another one.’
I don’t understand the point of going to class and dicking around. It’s not high school, just stay home and do your thing. And I’m saying this as the guy who did stay home from class rather than going and being a distraction. I’ve gotten that much needed kick in the ass over the past 6 months since I lost my scholarships and have been working to pay for next semester. :smack:
I may be giving the history student in the OP the benefit of the doubt, but perhaps that student was only acting like a belligerent child in that class. Goodness knows that when I was in college, there were times I acted like that, but really, most of the time I was somewhat engaged and ready to learn. I had a semester where I skipped probably fifteen classes, but I had other semesters where I may have missed one or two classes at the most. College then was half about learning and half about being a social butterfly. (Well, to the extent that I would ever be a social butterfly.) Maybe this was out of character for this guy, although if it wasn’t, he probably will be going to college 10 years later wishing he had taken advantage of his first chance.
LaurAnge does bring up a good point though. There are many younger students who are grateful for the opportunity to learn, work hard, and excel at schooling.