Luck

[cjsmith]

At physics lecture yesterday, the professor was making the point that she had given ample opportunity for students to earn extra credit. She pointed me out as an example, saying I had accumulated five percent. (This is the maximum, and it was earned by, get this, 1) showing up to lecture and 2) doing my homework. I wish I were kidding.)

Five or six people in the room yelled in an only-somewhat-friendly way "Oooo, luckyyyyyyyy!" That was the dominant word: lucky. The professor tried to point out that I had worked hard in this class, but I don't think that part of her message got across at all. It was as if the vocabulary she was using was in some other language.

Sometimes I worry about the future of this country, I really do. Lucky because I showed up to class? Lucky because I did the work after the professor told everyone we'd get credit for it? No. I don't think so. Lucky because I don't have cancer, that I'll buy. Lucky because I live in an area with ready access to community college courses, yes. Lucky because I bust my ass once I get there? No.

Comments

[cyan-blue.livejournal.com]

Indeed...

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

I'd even buy "lucky because I'm smart enough that when I bust my ass I have a good shot at an A". But that's soooooo not what they were talking about. :-/

[quasigeostrophy.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I listen to some of the undergrads around me and think, "Was I ever that ignorant?"

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

And in some ways, I know I was. I went through classes without doing nearly as much work as I needed to do to succeed. I talked myself out of dropping one and went on to flunk it instead. I had no sense of time management, study habits, or the large gap in effort between a B and an A. I had never had to pay rent, I had never had to get up and get things done when I was in massive pain, and I didn't have a firm concrete reason why I was in school in the first place.

I don't think I ever walked around saying that someone who did his homework was lucky to get a better grade than I did. But maybe I did. If so, there's hope for this crop, too.

[zianuray.livejournal.com]

Yup, 'cause it HAS to be just BAD LUCK they they didn't get all that extra credit and good grades. That, or the teacher didn't like 'em. 'Cause, you know, having to WORK for anything is, like, TOtally BOgus.

That sounds just way too familiar.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Isn't it though? I wonder how much is age, how much is demographic (local Bay Area California), how much is generational, etc. I felt like telling them that HEY, folks, most of YOU have your RENT PAID BY OTHER PEOPLE while you do this, and most of you are COMPLETELY PHYSICALLY HEALTHY, so shut up about luck. But I may have been just the same during my first set of undergraduate years. Maybe I should be thankful I don't remember clearly enough to say. :-)

[zianuray.livejournal.com]

BTW, I assume you get robbed by the IRS every year like the rest of us, so THANK YOU for paying for my LMT training and licensing earlier this year. I promise I worked hard for it, though! A brain may not have muscles, but I swear it can cramp!

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

*laughter* Yeah, I've paid for this schooling of mine as well! And boy do I know what you mean about brain cramps. It feels good, though, y'know? Like that feeling after a physical workout: I can do just a tiny bit more today than I could do yesterday.

[zianuray.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah. I was trying to filk muscle names to Kokomo.

[rfrench.livejournal.com]

Would you like fries with that?

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Doooooomed.

Or, y'know, hey, maybe it's mostly youth. I don't know.

[rfrench.livejournal.com]

We were never that young.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

And all you kids get off my lawn.

[klwalton.livejournal.com]

I weep.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

I think there are two things going on here, one of which bothers me more than the other. It's all well and good to be a lazy sot; I sure was. If you outgrow it, great -- you'll have more of what you want in life. But to be unable to tell the difference between work and luck is a deep twisted confusion that can only lead to pain for everybody in the end.

[ame-chan.livejournal.com]

I had a similar experience to what you're talking about. Luck has nothing to do with it. WORK has everything to do with it. And honestly? If your experience was anything like mine, you just showed up, payed attention, participated and did what was assigned to the best of your ability - and this is somehow a totally novel idea to half your class. I was told I was the "model student" today by my prof. And honestly? I kind of think that there should be more to earning that distinction than what I put in, which was simply doing the work as required to the best of my ability. While I was flattered, I was also a little bit saddened.

[simplykimberly.livejournal.com]

Word! I think all of us "older" students are seeing that.

I also find that I'm WAY more interested, in general, in the topic being taught, whatever it is, than most of my classmates.

On the flip side, it sounds like in all our cases, our profs love us! I'm not surprised, given what they usually get, but it's still nice to be on the receiving end of it :)

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

I, too, am way more interested than I once was. And my bio prof, at least, swoons over me.

I guess it makes a big difference that we have a goal in mind and we're there for a reason.

[lauradi7.livejournal.com]

The professors love us thing really seems to be true (I'm in Massachusetts, also in a state school). A classmate actually remarked about it somewhat resentfully. The teacher was shocked and upset, but I think he's correct, although it doesn't translate to better grades. It also is goofy - my intro to Psych professor was really pleased when he used Kennedy's assassination as an example that someone else in the room (me) remembered it. Maybe it's time for him to come up with a different example.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

I kind of think that there should be more to earning that distinction than what I put in...

Yes! Me too. I don't think for a minute that I'm the best student ever. In the working world, this amount of effort would net me a "meets expectations" on a review. (Granted, I also studied hard in this class. But if I had a job where my duties were to show up to lecture and do homework, I wouldn't be earning stellar reviews merely because I showed up to lecture and did homework. At least I hope I wouldn't.)

[excessor.livejournal.com]

I see this attitude at work, too. One of the managers who reports to me tells me I'm lucky that I “make all that money” because I'm two levels of manager above him. And yet, in the same conversation, he tells me he would never deal with the organizational politics or the weird ass HR policies or somehow determine who goes and who stays when layoffs come up. The fact that I'm willing to do those things is a big factor in our pay differential: it's not luck at all. What's funny is that I'm not even good at it; I'm not bad, but I'm not good, either.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Maybe "luck" has become a watered-down catch-all word for "you have something I don't have".

[janetl.livejournal.com]

Twenty-seven years ago (gasp!?! the horror!) I was a TA for undergraduate classes. I remember the dramatic difference between the kiddies and what were called "returning students". The adults were dramatically harder working. They weren't just moving on automatically ... HS senior -> college freshman -> sophmore -> .... They were there to Get Educated, dammit. They weren't just checking off the required classes towards a degree, they were learning stuff that they planned to _use_ _for_ _something_.
We TAs joked about how much more work they were. The 19-year-olds might show up to talk about how an essay had been graded, but they were usually just trying to improve their score. An adult showed up to ask questions because they really wanted to not just be able to recite the answer, but how to understand it in depth.

So I guess I'm coming down on the side of "it's not the new generation; it's every generation".

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

I bet you're right. I was a lazy lout when I was seventeen. (On the other hand, I think I knew what was and wasn't attributable to luck. I wasn't stupid, at least I think I wasn't.)

[lauradi7.livejournal.com]

It's tempting to blame the MCAS tests or other states' versions of the standardized fare required by No Child Left Behind, which has contributed to a massive climate of teaching to the test in public schools, especially high schools. My Physics professor said so pretty much word for word in a conversation I had with him. I go to school with a group of smart 20 year olds (more or less) who can reason if they have to and are interested in the material (now that we're at a level that it's mostly major subjects), but their attitude toward grades is pretty much "tell me what to regurgitate and I'll do it." Not laziness in the same way, because rote memorization is hard, but it's also discouraging to me.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

A friend of mine who's a high school teacher agrees that such a climate is rampant. It's discouraging to me too. I guess the problem is that they either have to do something like that, or they have to discriminate on the basis of ability. (I'm misquoting Tom Lehrer with that last phrase.) I can think of a handful of reasons why teaching to the test is more palatable than giving kids who don't understand the material a failing grade in the class.

[jcgbigler.livejournal.com]

I agree that the whole NCLB teaching to the test problem is a major problem, but I don't think that's what's behind the kids' comments.

I think these kids don't see a viable path to their own success. I think they think you're lucky because you found a path and followed it. The same path may well be there for these kids, but if they don't see it, they won't take advantage of it.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

I too don't think that's what's behind the comments. The idea that they don't see a path to success is food for thought. I never thought of it that way. By "a path to success" do you mean a path to good grades in school, or a path to broader future goals?