The drop-slip parade

The English department hums with activity today because it's the deadline for course drop; just outside my open door sit not one, but two, complete morons who feel justified in their indignation at their professor's lack of presence to sign said form. The young man grumbles about how much he "hates school" and the young woman agrees. I am tempted to poke my head round the corner and tell them that "school" - that is, COLLEGE - is completely voluntary, which is why you have to PAY for it. Sometimes I weep for the future.

Three times these two get up and knock loudly on the door next to my open one, as if they somehow expect that their part-time professor who lives in an 8x8 closet with no windows and three other part-time professors somehow didn't hear their knocking. Or that she teleported into the office. They grouse on about how she should be here (despite the fact she does not have office hours posted for this particular time of day) because they have THINGS TO DO. Not that they didn't have eleven weeks prior to this date to drop the course they dislike so vehemently. Or that they probably hate it because they see no value in educating their own dumb asses.

Can you tell I've kinda had it? I have to admit that even though I generally love to teach and find it - on the whole - quite rewarding, there are in fact days when it feels like polishing the brass on the Titanic. When I want to yell at the student who just sat through an entire class period of my explaining the assignment due in a week and still comes up after to ask me what the assignment is all about, and tell her that if she thinks my class is too hard and/or incomprehensible, then perhaps she should throw in the towel now. I believe in access to college for everyone, but in no way do I believe that college is for everyone or that everyone should go to college. I have no idea why this notion gets so much promotion, in fact; there is nothing at all wrong with NOT going to college if it's not your thing. One can get a whole host of perfectly respectable jobs without a degree, and I know many people who have. I don't look unfavorably on any person because of their education level.

I do, however, get ridiculously sick of people who are just plain stupid. Who don't bother to learn how to speak their own native language. Who never read a fucking book without being forced. Who have no idea what is going on in the world or that it doesn't revolve around their cell phones and personal drama. Who are not ashamed at their lack of ability to comprehend even the simplest narrative and have any insight at all about it. And plenty of them go to college for reasons I cannot possibly guess since their goals rarely seem to be about educating themselves.

There is a reason why Idiocracy is both funny and terrifying...