This week is the week in which students pick their topic (from a list provided by the school--not me) for their final project. It is something he/she will have to live with until the end of the course and hopefully build a great philosophy project around. It is a question which they explore and research theories about in order to build their own answer (build upon the ideas of the greats of course).
Unfortunately, too many students DO NOT DO THIS. They pick a topic they feel they know ALL about and proceed to "preach" (literally) to me in their OVERLY personalized pieces without citing any sources. CHECK THAT! They actually include one citation if I am lucky. To guess what?
THE BIBLE.
I know I know. It is a source of infinite knowledge and wisdom and....well...sorry to say, blah blah blah. THIS IS NOT a Bible study course. This is not a Christianity course. It is not even a world religions course. It is a PHILOSOPHY COURSE in which they should be demonstrating their new found knowledge on the topic of...you guessed it! PHILOSOPHY.
I dread this topic-picking assignment because most students pick the hardest topic to do and never do it justice. There are so many interesting topics, but too many students feel "oh, I know ALL ABOUT THIS" and then fail to recognize the purpose of the assignment---or the numerous, VERY visible and spelled-out, REQUIREMENTS.
I get that many are very good Christians who feel compelled to share this knowledge with me or anyone else, but when did school become the place for that? When did requirements become optional? When did students start writing EVERYTHING in first person and talking to me like a buddy they are emailing? Since when did "research" become reciting memorized passages from the bible to back up your own ideas?
This is tough for me in some ways because I GET where they are coming from (in their personal lives and experiences and their obvious conviction for their religion), but I am also an educator. I am there to do a job and disregard for MY purpose and clear instructions PISSES ME OFF!
I bitch about this every time I teach these courses and my husband gets an earful, so I thought I would take my annoyance elsewhere for a change!
There. I feel better. :)
1 comment:
So, um, do your students know that they can't just reference the Bible, or the Koran, or whatever faith text they identify with?
I think that the death of libraries is one of the reasons why you see a new generation that doesn't know how to cite, how to research, or how to write in anything but 1st person. Oh, and I blame technology too; that these kids grow up using email and chat and phone text means that they no longer learn how to write formally, and spell without relying on a spell-checker.
I feel for ya girl. I wouldn't want to be the one reading their philosophy papers. Even *I* (and you know how I get about my faith) cited multiple other sources when I wrote papers for my philosophy courses. No reason why religion has to preclude the use of their brains; in fact, a good solid thesis is made that much more convincing when many texts are referenced.
But you know this generation - they only know how to Google. Many have never even seen an encyclopedia, much less opened one.
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