ONE MORE VITAL RESPONSIBILITY

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There are a lot of tricky responsibilities heaped on the college professor.

• To teach in a way that will lead to learning.
• To mold the citizens of tomorrow and to ensure their employment.
• To lead classes, to manage courses, and to explore the various disciplines through research.

But there is one more significant responsibility, and while it exists to a greater degree in small colleges, it is still applicable to universities. And that is the responsibility to actually look after the well-being of the students who take our classes and attend our institutions.

In a recent column in The Chronicle of Higher Education, Domenick Scudera articulated the responsibility well.

“Professors have an unspoken understanding with the parents of our students, don’t we? Parents entrust the well-being of their children to us, and we promise to guide and teach them while they are away at college,” he wrote.

Too often professors have a tendency to look at too many of their students as irresponsible and immature humans who view the demands of their teachers and advisers as just another impediment to their hectic lives.

But it can’t be that way.

When I taught at an international university comprised mostly of students who could be kindly, truthfully, and nicely described as “spoiled rich kids” I had a bit of a hard time initially looking at my role as anything other than a provider of information. But the longer I stayed there the more I realized that guiding them and looking out for their well-being as people was a key element of my teaching. Rich or poor, students are still young adolescent-adults looking for mentors to steer them in the right directions, to help them make the best choices and to be someone who will help look out for them.

Often the students we teach are far away from home…for their first time…being brave but uncertain, and needing to see those who are their teachers as something more. Not parents, but certainly supporters and guides.

Parents do entrust those responsibilities to us, the professors. And we cannot take those responsibilities lightly.

 

Comments

[Steven Londe]

In my opinion, Eastern Florida also caters to distant learners who have been out of school for many years. They are coming back to school to obtain a certificate or taking a course for a promotion or better yet obtaining a degree to start a new career. Some of these folks have families with children to take care of. This population are parents themselves trying to go to the college for further growth.

To sum up, there is a diversity of cultures here at Eastern Florida. They deserve to be recognnized.

[JLH]

Steven: Yes, I wholeheartedly agree. Adult learners need their own kind of "care" and it certainly is not the same sort of care we give to resident undergrads. Obviously many colleges and universities have developed out-of-class kinds of programs and accommodations. But, in class, while we as profs need to look after the well-being of the "kids," we also need to think hard about the parents attending those classes. And obviously it's not any sort of rearrangement of the course, it's just our responsibility to hear and care about their journeys through academia. Jack