In “Message to my Freshman Students”, Keith Parsons offers his new first year students a bit of advice. He states that college is quite different from high school and that the job of a professor is very different than the job of a teacher. Whereas a teacher is responsible for your education, professors are not. “At university, learning is your job-and yours alone,” Parsons explains, “My job is to lead you to the fountain of knowledge.” It is up to the student to gorge themselves. Unlike teachers, professors can control the format and the content of their course to an extent. In high school, teachers catered to their students need for stimulation, but in college, things tend to operate the “old-fashioned way”. Parsons firmly asserts his opinion on the matter by stating, “We should not foolishly expect them to listen to us, but instead cater to their conditioned craving for constant stimulation.” In the midst of all the educational reform, universities remain untouched. Many professors, like Parsons, test the listening skills and attention span of their students by lecturing them. This concept is foreign to many first-year students and requires them to quickly adjust to this different “country” if they want to stay on track.
Although Parsons has a deep understanding of the education system at a university level and taught upper level courses for many years, I feel that his ideas on the responsibilities of first year professors are flawed. He clearly establishes the differences between high school teachers and college professors by stating that, “It is no part of my job to make you learn.”. Forcing students to learn may not be one of his responsibilities, but shouldn’t a professor at least provoke their students to learn?
Although Parsons has a deep understanding of the education system at a university level and taught upper level courses for many years, I feel that his ideas on the responsibilities of first year professors are flawed. He clearly establishes the differences between high school teachers and college professors by stating that, “It is no part of my job to make you learn.”. Forcing students to learn may not be one of his responsibilities, but shouldn’t a professor at least provoke their students to learn?
Forgive me if I’m wrong, but the reason one would pursue a career in education is because they love to educate. The job of an educator may not include forcing students to learn, but I would hope that professors care for their students’ success in class. In almost every class I am in, the professors have tallied the average on at least one, if not all of our major assignments.
Parsons is right, learning is now our job and we are responsible for our shortcomings, but he is still in front of the class doing the same thing that high school teachers do: presenting knowledge. No matter how high one makes it on the spectrum, an educator is an educator. If Parsons really feels that a course is “an opportunity for you to make your world richer and yourself stronger.”, then why does he have “no obligation whatsoever” to make sure that his students pass? In my eyes, this is very careless and the first year professors, especially, should show more interest in their students.
In this constantly evolving world, universities stand firm to their archaic ways. Parsons indicates that the format of most courses will be as follows: “a good bit of lecture, some discussion and little or no test preparation.”. Lecturing may be an effective method for upper-level professors to convey information to their students, but first-year students are not prepared for lectures because they do not know how to critically listen. Parsons says himself that incoming first-year students are not prepared for lectures by insisting, “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.”. The solution to this obstacle is not bombarding students with lectures. It’s helping the students acclimate to their new learning environment. Parsons claims going to university is like going to a different country; “one with a different culture and different values.” In my opinion, first year professors should bridge the gap between these two very different cultures. When there are more effective methods of instructing, it is ignorant to glue yourself to one technique simply because it’s the old fashioned way.