Professor & Students

Though conflict solved, but this incident has stimulated some thoughts inside my mind that has nothing to do with the incident itself.

 

      Generally I think professor and student has different point of view due to different situation and objective. For a professor, their focus is about students' progress on only "THAT" subject; while for student, their focus is on their "university life" and "grades".

 

      I) Every professor urge students to buy textbook in order to excel in that subject. That's nothing wrong from that perspective. But students in general would find it's waste of money because they hardly find any time to "study" textbooks. 
  
      II) Every professor would like all students to attend class and tutorials so that they can been "taught" by them. That's reasonable if their teaching skills are good. But students in general would like to have their own freedom to make their choice. To attend lectures, or to watch lecture recording in room, or to study by themselves, or even don't study.

 

      III) Some professors would like to give numerous and demanding course works to "help" students to increase their understanding. I won't say they are evil-hearted but they are just a bit "ignorant". The course that they taught is not the sole course students are taking. Somemore besides studies, there are still many other commitments... A professor wouldn't hope that their students are only bookworm who only focus on their studies right? Though ironically, bookworms are among the groups that have the most chances to climb up to the position of professor.

 

      Though professors were students once but some of them forgot how they lived when they were students. It's normal since most of the adults forgot how they think and act when they were teenagers as well. But I will appreciate it if they can somehow recall their memories. I admire those professors who reveal their experiences. I like those professors that told students that they skipped classes before, or their professors were lousy and had terrible ascend.

 

      After all, university should be the place for self-decision making, learning to work in groups and compromising with others,  balancing of different life aspects but not purely following authotharian order. If your teaching skill s good and students find it useful, no student would like to skip the class even you want to chase them out. If your teaching skill is terrible, no student would like to stay even you force them to.

Fair play. Why must a student follows class? Personally speaking I am those kind of "bad" student who will skip class once necessary and won't feel guilty about that. It's my decision and I'm ready to pay for the price. What's wrong?

 

      The hardwork, stress and competition among Japanese & Koreans during high school to get into universtiy is well known. But guess what they do in university? Continue to be hardworking and live stressfully? Many of them chose another extreme: play around all the time. By the same token, many people who study really hard in university expect to have an easy life about graduation. Short period of sacrifice for long period of leisure huh? I can't see the logic behind. Life should always be difficult, but full of surprise and fun at the same time.