Re: the 50-word story
Michael Hirsch wrote:
Nobody is “condoning the contempt and disgust of teachers.” But Joanna (and now Andie, it seems) is shifting the focus away from the real frustrations teachers have with blase students to alleging bilious attitudes on the part of faculty. The answer to Soviet Era incompetence was not, as the old joke went, “look at the racism in the United States.” There are burnt-out profs who’ve given up on teaching and there are students wasting their own time in college. Both statements are true. Both need to be remedied.This isn’t a contest over whose class wounds are deeper.
Isn’t there something seriously wrong when kids get to college - a name-brand college, like NYU or the University of Virginia - and can’t write a grammatical sentence or know when the Civil War happened? Sure, they’re the product of a dumbass history-hating society, but it’s easy to understand why it bums teachers out. Drove me out of the profession, that’s for sure. I don’t know how people stand it, in fact.
Doug