Read This or Die

As I wrap up another term of teaching Composition to students who don’t really want to be in my classes, I am struck by the numbers who demonstrate their disinterest by open disinclination to do the necessary work. I suspect that some of them are only attempting college because either the government or an employer has tempted them with “free money.” There are doubtless a few who have no intention of completing a degree or program, but simply want to stay enrolled long enough for the stimulus check to clear, after which they withdraw with a partial refund in cash. I call it Cash for Dummies.

This is a cynical outlook, I understand. However, the anecdotal evidence from my peers supports this theory. Soon after the stimulus money began to flow, we marveled at the twenty or thirty percent drop in enrollment after the seventh or eighth week of the term. Many of these withdrawals had done reasonably well up to that point, then they just stopped coming to class. The cloud of befuddlement began to clear from the faculty lounge when we learned that the timing of the drops coincided with the deposit of the last stimulus installment.

This explains some of the attrition, but there are many who remain to the end with little hope of earning a passing grade. Across the disciplines there are reports of students in the final weeks of class struggling with concepts which should have been mastered early in the term. Students who fail elementary quizzes want re-takes. Students who knew they were failing at mid-term come asking what they can do to pass on the last day of class. One student wrote in a late term essay that she was failing Comp for the second time, only now realizing that to pass she would have to work harder.

All this disturbed, saddened and frustrated me personally. Then I saw a news report that highlighted the sickening result of the attitude of my students. A young airman was killed in Iraq during a routine munitions demolition. The operation involved destroying a large number of fragmentation bombs, the anti-personnel type which scatter shrapnel up to two thousand feet. The manual detailing how to dispose of this type of bomb is clearly written. It plainly instructs the operators to set off the demolition in an earthen pit and remain behind barriers far from the blast.

For some reason, the deceased airman was only eight hundred feet away from a surface level blast and not protected by any barrier. He was part of a team who were trained to do the job they were doing. But they did not follow instructions. My guess is that they either ignored the clear directions in the manual, or worse, did not bother to read it at all. These young people have been conditioned by an education system which does not allow negative consequences to get in the way of good self esteem. I see these students in my classes every day. They think they can pass my class without reading the chapters or properly writing the assignments.

Unfortunately the real world assigns consequences to our actions. Ignore the manual for the stamping machine and lose a hand. Disregard the safety measures for connecting that fuel line and experience self-immolation. Discount the warning to stay off the pier in high waves and sleep with the fishes. Overlook the admonition that to befriend the world is to make God an enemy… Ouch. Maybe it isn’t only the world that attaches consequences. My late brother-in-law used to love to say, “When all else fails, read the instructions.” Good advice.