A quickie, while we wait

[drwex]

I have pictures and stories and words in process and they'll all eventually show up here, but right now a brief interlude:

Desiringsubject made a comment about the situation in which a student (oneself) does only the minimum required to pass a course,

The last time I can remember doing that myself was sophomore year, first semester. The class was French II or some equally imaginative name. In order to get the degree I thought I wanted I needed three semesters of a foreign language (why three and not four? Don't ask. University rules make NO sense.)

I had just barely squeaked by the first two semesters. I think I placed out of one based on testing well in remembering my high school French and somehow got through the other. So all I needed was this one more semester.

Now it's worth noting that I suck at speaking foreign languages. I think it's largely the sheer memorization involved; I've never been good at that sort of thing. Also, verbs. English's notion of how to mangle a verb is a stunted dwarf by comparison with the arcane convolutions most languages put their verbs through. The tense conjugations of most French verbs would do a circus contortionist proud. But I digress...

I had explained to the (young, enthusiastic) French teacher that I had no facility for languages. She, however, was convinced that she could cure me of this problem and so I took her class. She made it easy - you only needed a 60 to pass, rather than the usual 70 (of 100). Having determined this, I averaged 62 and changed my grading regimen to pass/fail. Thus doing almost precisely the minimum possible to pass the class, get the credit the University said I had to have, and spending my time on what I then considered to be Better Things.

In hindsight, I'm not sure that was a correct judgment, but what I remember most was the look on that poor teacher's face when I pointed out that I had, definitionally, passed the class despite doing very little work and effectively learning nothing. Now-me, having spent time as a teacher, has much more sympathy for her than then-me did. Perhaps she was young enough and new enough at the teaching game that she'd never had a student game the system in such a horrid way. But I did, and if I had it to do over again I'm not sure I would act differently. I really do suck at (non-English) languages, you see.

Perhaps to make up for it, or perhaps in karmic payback, I get grief from my cow orkers for using words like "quiesce" on my bug reports.

Comments

[badseed1980.livejournal.com]

Heh. I had a "minimum required work" policy in school, myself. But for me, it was the minimum work required to get the grade I wanted in the class. Usually, that was an A- at least, though for one tough class in high school and a few in college, it was B or better. But I never put in ALL the effort I could have. I had better things to do. :)

[c1.livejournal.com]

I passed a kid by half a point because he was a senior, and failing my class would have meant he wouldn't walk. These days, compare a kid without a HS diploma to one with, and you then start asking "does the world need another "fuel transfer technician*", or is it for the good that this kid gets more forgiveness than he might deserve?"

A couple weeks later, I found out that he got into Middlesex Community College, which to me, validated my decision.

*Gas station attendant

[cos]

I can't figure out what your comment means. How did his risk of not graduating give you motivation to exceed his grade (or to only barely exceed his grade)? What sort of comparison between a kid with or without a HS school diploma, are you referring to: what they're like as people, what they know, the differences in their average incomes? How does that comparison lead to the question you pose? How does that question, or the fact that he went to Middlesex (or both?), validate your decision to surpuss his grade (or, your decision to only barely surpass his grade)?

[c1.livejournal.com]

Short form: the kid had some deep issues, but later showed some potential. Given a few more weeks, he'd probably have earned his grade.
Diploma v. non-diploma: who earns more? Who's more attractive when it comes to getting a job?

[marmota.livejournal.com]

Sounds about right to me. By the standards of your story I gamed my way through college, but then, and somewhat now, I figure that's the point... learning is what I do on *my* time, school is just the hoops that society made me jump through to get whatever stamp of approval is necessary to then get through the hoops of other people who aren't inclined to put in the time to actually get to know me. Not surprisingly, I'm consistently baffled as to why anyone willingly goes into academia instead of out into the real world.

[intuition-ist.livejournal.com]

mostly, one goes into academia if one is enthralled by ideas rather than results, and has a steady stream of new ideas to foist on unsuspecting grad students. then again, i'm cynical. i try not to be, but there it is.

[davidfcooper.livejournal.com]

Without p/f, p/nc, & switching to audit status my GPA would have been an embarrassment.

The most effective way to learn a language is immersion, which cannot really be replicated in high school or college classrooms. After four years of high school Latin I satisfied my undergraduate language requirement with a tutorial in which I translated a poem per week by a Roman poet (my idea of fun). My first masters degree required a modern spoken language so I took 6 weeks of intensive French, spent 3 weeks in France, and then took another 6 weeks of French for Reading and managed to pass a combination reading & conversation exam to fulfill the requirement. After finishing my first masters degree I spent five years in Israel. Five years after my return to the USA I started my second masters degree and tested out of its language requirement by translating an academic article from Hebrew to English under test conditions (in a classroom with other test takers monitored by a proctor). And now I can boast that I have three academic degrees and fulfilled the language requirement of each one with a different language (even though I am currently only fluent in English, half fluent in Hebrew, and remember only a little French and even less Latin).

[chienne-folle.livejournal.com]

Your facility with the English language is great enough that I'm shocked to hear that you can't handle foreign languages. I was a French major as an undergraduate -- one who took Spanish and German classes just because they were fun -- so I can barely wrap my mind around someone as intelligent as you are who doesn't do languages.

And French verbs are not at all hard compared to some languages! Consider yourself lucky.

I feel sorry for foreigners who try to learn English, because our verbs often have prepositions that are really part of the verb. Just think of "shut down" vs. "shut up" or "take up" vs. "take over" vs. "take down" vs. "take in." It must be so hard!