September 28, 2004
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Topic: Quick update
Met w/ a dean this morning, who is running a forum this Sat. on student apathy. She is perhaps the only dean who considers this to be a problem, and has worked months to get this forum to happen. She laughs that others view her as too far out there, but she spends her time advising students in a way different than most. She actually advises them on how to be people, not just students.
She told me stories of countless freshman, who don’t talk in class. She asks them, “don’t you guys have any questions?” and most just say, “No.” The whole thing is outrageous. She also found the website for Evergreen St. and said she and some other faculty often talk and dream about Wash U. running itself like their school does.
This is probably the first activist faculty member I’ve come across. She’s organizing for me to be a part of the panel of speakers, which includes some distinguished faculty. She will also help me promote my book at the event. (I also get a free lunch and dinner out of the occassion!)
She joked that it’s ironic that the type of discussion we had an fighting apathy has to almost be held in a private forum. There was another person w/ us, a senior who is interning on the project.
Well…need to get back to work, another hour at the book store, good opportunity to spread the word. Yes, my friends, things are just getting started. It is not coincidence that I am finding the right people. It just took me to first find myself. Now, I am able to see what I couldn’t as a student. Now I am able to find anything I need to find.
Comments (4)
i am a student who doesn’t ask questions. not because i don’t have them, but because i feel they are insignificant to most and wasteful to general classtime. especially since most days i am simply waiting for us to get out.
i think the simplest remedy for this is to lower class size. i’m not talking 20-30 students either. 15 is getting close. but i want 5-10 kids in a class. everyone should be able to actively participate and get to know each other and form views and have debates and arguments. i meet no new people in class even when i have ‘group assignments.’
the relationship shouldn’t be only between teacher and student. but the opposite and student to student.
these ideas, however, seem to be totally off the direction that education is going now, and since we don’t invest enough money (funny how i can say that even at washu’s cost) in the actual classroom teaching experience. i long for the days where college is more like a studious apprenticeship than lectures and slideshows of passively digested abstract thoughts.
hm, there’s a lot to unpack in what i just said. i might just have to read your damn book to see if you address these things.
cheers,
What can students do to get the class size they want? Clearly, the university thinks it’s acceptable to have these large, though largely eneducating, classroom environments. The problem is, once you’ve chosen to come to Wash U., you’re unlikely to leave until you’ve spent your four years here and gotten your degree. So…in that respect, the uni has the power over you.
I think if (hopefully when) a large amount of the student body comes to realize they’ve chosen to attend a school that is not built, philosophically or practically, to provide the type of education they want, then they will find a way to put pressure on the admin. I’m just thinking outloud now, but perhaps student boycotts of large classes, or student boycotts of certain departments, could force the university to reconsider a lot of things.
Myself, and others I have spoken to, think that studying business as an undergrad is simply wrong. The point of college should not be to simply prepare you for a job, and especially not a job in corporate America, as the b-school does. Most students i’ve spoken to are unhappy w/ their b-school classes. Most students i’ve spoken to who have graduated from WU, found jobs in business, not because they majored in business, but either because they had a WU degree, or because they networked. So…maybe students will wake up to this, and boycott the b-school. A massive transferring of students away from a corporate sponsored education, into a more liberal arts education, will provide the heat to make Wash U. change its entire approach to education.
Some argue that Wash U. students are getting what they want, or at least, what their parents want. I really think this is far from the case. Student voices, more than anything else, will lead to change.
Its good that you have found someone to listen to you
interesting quandry…have to share what you learn from it…