To create something? Hell no!

A funny thing happened to me during the semester.

 

I know that the dear students are often living in a pocket dimension of their own, quite remote to reality, where requirements are an endangered species, and everyone is on a big happy picnic on the meadow that is in the place of the deep dark forest which was cut to the ground, and even though it is Summer, they even heated with it out of rage, not to leave a single piece of it, as this was the former home of the evil requirements - no wonder they are on the brink of extinction.

However, they usually just give hidden, indirect signs of these romantic imaginations. For example, such is when it is written on their face, that they simply don't know what to do with the situation, when it turns out that no, the minimum score will not be decreased. Especially not because "pleeeease" or because "I started working at the end of the semester, now I know that it's important", or just because puppy dog eyes covered in tears, that's why.


However, such an honest manifestation of disgust from the very thought that maybe a little requirement is still roaming, still hiding somewhere at the hidden, far end of the world, that I came across the other day, is really hard to find.

 Classical structure of a class by the end of the semester: actual information about the end-term test in 3 and a half minutes at the beginning of the class (and yes, it is still completely sure that there will be a retake test), and then comes the material. And when I've written over half the board, and I'm in the middle of a longer thought, the young man in the first bunk, with an expression of pain and agony on his face, begins to tumble and fumble, until finally, he finally lets loose the stress pent up in him until now (for about 10-15 minutes).

Just held down to the essence, the following statements were sounded, repeated 5 or 6 times:

• All the other teachers give them the same tasks they've discussed in class on the test, they change the parameters only.

Well now, this would not be a faulty practice on its own, however it makes the dear students dull,  and encourages them not to try and understand why things are happening, rather, just to get the task types off by heart, or, if even this is too demanding for them, just cheat and check the types, and substitute the parameters.

Something else is funny in this sentence. And that is him saying "all the other teachers". Even the statistical probability of this statement being true is quite small, and furthermore, the young man had forgotten a tiny something. The thing that I usually talk with my collegaues. I have came across more advanced versions of this, like "I have As in all other subjects, only this is where I'm missing the signature", as a high-level demand for a decrease of the minimum score. Unfortunately, this fails at the same point. In such cases, it takes about 5 minutes to find out how many places the given student has already tried using the same line this week. Seriously, does someone really believe that when he/she's saying this, I'm going to believe it?

Apart from this, the dear student didn't get confused one bit from contradicting himself either, when pulling in the next argument:

• They have to prepare a lot for the other subjects as well, and a horrible amount of information is poured on them, but they bear this heroically

So, let's make things straight. What I've heard until now is that the situation is really seriuous, even though, well, thinking isn't really necessary, and this is explicitly stated in every other practical course. Ergo, it's in the air implicitly that everyone is so cool on this faculty, I'm the only bastard here. At this point I was really near laughing out loud, but little did I know, that the best part is still to come...

• We can rewrite the examples sketched up with new parameters (watch out, here comes the quote, word by word) "but to create something?!?"

So I listened to him five times, as he  angrily complains outloud about "having to create something" based on the things learnt in class. Based on this, he might even have said "Thinking? No, there won't be things like that here, understood?". My apologies.

And now comes the twist in the story. In this group, I have to have the students write small tests every week in order to avoid total ignorance towards the material. I know, I know, kindergarden style, but this had some selfish reasons. The whole thing is about not getting opposed at the end of the semester by the students who had sightfully spent less than a minute with the material, and then, when it turns out that their points are embarrasingly close to zero, they demand all kinds of help, re-explanations, coaching, the patient listening to their endless promises, decreases of the minimum score, or maybe a supplementary supplementary test.

So the aim of these small tests was to force them to deal with the examples in class, at least on a minimal level. And from this, you all can guess how the tasks in the small tests were made? Guess how?

[drumming and other measures to escalate excitement]

By copying the examples discussed in class, and changing the parameters! But in the light of this I have no idea what the young man wanted. Maybe we should sink even lower, and I should indicate which example the task is derived from and how? Or I should whishper it into his ear, and then pat him on the back when he'll try to convince everyone that it was Him and only Him, who bravely, like a big boy, came up with the idea? That it was no one else's, just his thought?

However, I wasn't the one who had to answer the classical question that who should be feeling discomfortable in this situation. There is such a level in decreasing requirements that even the other students in the group might feel embarassing. The neighbour of the dear student, after paying attention to his monologue, and to my response as well, in which I tried to bring his attention to the fact that actually they've been given what he is frantically demanding now, just said, with a weariful sigh, nodding at the board: "Oh, just go on."

For this one single sentence, it was worth hearing the whole thing through.