Pedagogical exasperation

I just got back from a meeting of the adjunct faculty over at Fulton-Montgomery Community College, where I'll be teaching an English course again this semester. It struck me that many of my colleagues seem exasperated about students' poor class attendance, lack of motivation and lack of focus. I've felt that exasperation myself, having had more than a few frustrating moments in the classroom, but I often remind myself that sometimes a person needs to try a thing, even if he or she is not destined to excel at it. Whether it is an academic subject, a trade, or a hobby, the most important thing is to try.

You see me holding a fiddle in my profile photo over there on the right; you might assume that I am a halfway-decent fiddle player. You would be wrong.  I try, and I do sometimes make a pleasant sound come out of the thing rather than the usual  noise, which resembles the braying of an amorous goat. I keep practicing, however, and I hope someday to be a halfway-decent fiddler. (If that fails, my fallback position is halfway-decent banjo picker.)

But back to the subject at hand — students. If you read our print edition, you might have noticed that this week's Doonesbury comics have been set on the campus of a community college. This one, in particular, hit home for me (click on the cartoon above to enlarge it).

It made me wonder how many of my former students have run away with the circus.