I don’t blame the students I have now, especially in my core requirement courses. I just try to keep them reasonably entertained as they sit there with no pens or notebooks (attendance is required at my school). And as a history prof, telling funny and sometimes pathetic stories tends to keep them happy.

I was a better student in College, but I sure as heck had a hard time making it to my eight o’clock classes. I had an epiphany after I talked to the TA about why I had done poorly on a midterm. She said something in a kind, but straightforward manner – To earn a better grade I had to use the readings in the exams. Boy, that was eye opening, because nobody had ever told me that! That one brief discussion made me a better student. I actually did more of the readings and did better in the class. Obvious in retrospect, but not self-evident at the time.

I had a great time in my upper division and even the lower division history classes, but sometimes struggled in the general education courses. I remember particularly hating one sociology class. In retrospect, most of this, 90% of it, was rank immaturity on my part. There were somethings the instructors could have done better, like rubrics and better assignment sheets. But that was the 1980s.

I try to remember my own immaturity when teaching students at Woebegone State University.

I am also currently wondering why most of my students seem reluctant to give up on the Pilgrims as the founders of colonial America.

I was both the jerk in the classroom (and remind myself of this often) and the intellectually curious student. In the first two years it was entirely dependent on the day.