For all parents out there sending kids to college.
http://chronicle.com/blognetwork/tenuredradical/2014/07/bye-bye-birdies-sending-the-kids-away-to-college/

Good solid advice. A middle-school colleague of mine was complaining about new kids expecting "do-overs" for bad grades on tests and assignments. That concept was new to me.

I was working at a University while I was in grad school and had 20 undergraduate students working for me. It was interesting to hear them talk about teachers allowing them to make up tests, to turn in assignments late, and to get extra credit.

I told them they had no idea how good they had it. My graduate school teachers would not let you make up a test unless you were in the hospital or a close family member died. There was no excuse for turning assignments in late. And extra credit was not an option. And if your cell phone rang during class, they would take it from you and you wouldn't get it back until after class.

A friend of mine teaches undergraduate biology and she is hard core about it. If a student misses a test without contacting her beforehand and giving her a legitimate reason, she fails the test. I totally agree with her. Out in the real world an employer isn't going to excuse you from an assignment because you just didn't feel like doing your work that day.

I think parents often forget that our job is to turn out a functional human being when we are finished with our work. Back when I was in undergrad, I had a hall mate who had never used an alarm clock because her mom had always woken her up. My boyfriend took his laundry home to his mother every weekend. He mentioned to me once that when we got married I would have to do all the ironing because he didn't know how. My response was, "I'll teach you."

MY sister teaches part time at a two year college and at a university. She goes insane dealing with clueless students.

In one class she told (and it was in the syllabus) the students that all test questions would come from the study questions at the end of the chapter. So....if you do the study questions, the tests should be easy. Kids with poor grades asked what they could do to get a better grade.....well the first thing would be to listen and to read instructions. She repeated this information before each test.

She was giving a make up test to a student, I don't remember the reason. He just didn't show up. When she contacted him he said it conflicted with his work schedule.

The number of students willing to ask for extra time etc., has risen to a level where students ask me to work with them because they planned a vacation, got married, took two classes with class at the sane time or the best one yet for me - I will be gone on Natl Guard duty for 6 weeks can you work with me.

I usually say no, and you can usually count the number of students that you say no to by looking at the number of "poor teacher" ratings on student evaluations.

I only do extra credit for the entire class - no individual extra credit.

The article was great, but I see older students doing it now.

The teachers in the tiny, rural Christian school I attended in the mid-1970's were more conscientious than many of today's high school and university teachers. My old strict, Calvinist teachers at Ebenezer Christian School in Lynden, Washington, required excellence in penmanship, times tables, spelling, punctuation, reading comprehension, clarity of thought, memorization skills, etc. If we failed to meet their high standards, the consequence was simple and direct - we had to stay in at recess studying on our own until we learned the stuff. We couldn't join the other kids outside playing until we took, for example, the spelling test over, and got the words right.

When we entered the fifth grade, Mr. Nymeyer told us we would be learning American political history. We each bought a special notebook for keeping notes on every presidential administration from Washington to Carter. Mr. Nymeyer led us through just about everything: The Whisky Rebellion, The Nullification Crisis, The Great Depression, major pieces of legislation like the Hawley-Smoot Tariff Act and prohibition, foreign policy approaches like The Monroe Doctrine, the War of 1812, the Civil War, etc. Having already been drilled in literacy, none of us thought there was anything unusual about having to master that sort of information at ten years old. By the end, we could have smoked most high school or even university graduates on American history.

Mostly because my dad freaked out about long distance calls, I only called home about once a week. I went to my grandma's every month for a weekend.

Of course, I also spent 2 years without talking to them while on a mission.

I have a friend who is a university economics professor. He lets me read final exams after the class ends and the grades are submitted. We usually burn them in his fire pit, making fun of the stupid attempts at answers, while drinking many beers.

He will toss in an extra credit question on his exams, often polling his Facebook friends to help him come up with questions. Some examples of extra credit questions we've used so far:

* Name the three branches of government.
* Who is the governor of Florida?
* Sally went to Old Navy to buy some shorts. She bought three pairs that were 20% off the original price of $19.99. How much, total, did Sally pay for all three pairs of shorts, including the Florida sales tax rate of 7.5%?
* Billy Jimbo went to the quickie mart and bought a 40-ounce Pabst Blue Ribbon, a Slim Jim, and a pack of Marlboros. The total was 10.87. Billy Jimbo paid with a $20 bill. How much change did he receive?

These are like, third grade level questions. You would not believe how many college sophomores cannot get those questions correct (I've seen the answer attempts!) The last time my friend asked for possible extra credit questions, I suggested "What is your name?" and predicted at least 50% of the class would get that one wrong.