What the hell is wrong with people?

[rbandrews]

Robert, this is only partially about you. Mostly, this post has been forming for a while.

My last post talked about how one of my roommates completely skipped out on an assignment. He gave me something for it this morning: one of the solutions, I think, completely unlabeled, scrawled in blue ink on the back of his resume, in the worst handwriting I have ever seen. I'm not sure what he expected me to do with it; I'm not turning that in with my name on it.
One of my friends in class I haven't seen in almost a month; he just stopped going to all his classes. This is a guy who I have two classes with. I don't think he knows that there's a test in one of them tomorrow.
I see people turn in handwritten things that they folded up and stuck in their back pocket to bring to school. I see people asking questions in class that make no sense... I'm not talking that they don't understand what's going on, that's okay, that's what class is for. I'm talking they weren't even listening and they realized that they just missed something important, so they figure they'll waste everyone's time by babbling something in the hopes the professor will say the whole lecture again.
I see people falling asleep in class. Literally, sound asleep.
The professors aren't much better: half the time, if you ask a question or say something that wasn't on their prepared list of student feedback, then they completely lose their train of thought, mumble something about "have to think about it" and completely blow you off.
Dr. Santos is not included in that. She's extremely competent.

Anyone reading this that went to school before me... Was it always like this? Were people always this... lackadaisical? I can see the professors not caring if the students care this little, but don't the students care about how their work looks? Or how they, by extension, look?

I know it's cliché, but if I had done something as slipshod at work as I see people turn in every day in class, well, I don't even know what would have happened. I never saw anyone do that; it never occurred to any of us not to put forth the effort to present ourselves and our work well. Is it laziness? The CS department seems to think that students are unable to write competently, is that it? Why not do your goddamn job?

Update: Someone from a different group in the database class sits next to me in my algorithm class, which I'm in now. He just pulled out the database project and started working on it.

Comments

[narquelion.livejournal.com]

You know my story about the half-CS, half-EE class where the professor was explaining binary counters for about half a lecture before some guy asked the question that was apparently on everyone [else]'s mind: "Um, dude, these are really cool, but what the heck would you use it for?"

Other than that, no, I got nothing. I would do homework in large lecture classes if the professor is repeating something, or answering questions for people such as the abovementioned dumbass. But generally it was the homework just assigned, as opposed to the homework due immediately. *waves masochist banner*

[rbandrews]

When you did this, did you then wad the homework up and throw it at the professor to turn it in?
I just don't get it. What does it say when you care that little about your work.. I think it says something like "Hey, I am so proud of the work I did for this assignment that I scrawled it on a bar napkin and carried it in my back pocket. Give me an A!"

[ranchonmars.livejournal.com]

The group project thing, I got screwed on a deal like that once--though it was the French assistants (faculty TA's!) that screwed me by one not doing her part, and one not telling us she'd dropped the class. (Four person project.)

The other stuff--god, no. If I'd tried to turn in something wadded up like that, it would've been returned to me with a polite request to make it readable and have it on their desk within 24 hours (or within 3). If it was a habit, you'd likely fail. And half the students didn't even have computers to use, let alone programs with spell checkers. Jamming folded up homework in a pocket to turn in? There's no excuse for it, if you ask me.

[rbandrews]

Yeah, I dunno. It never ceases to amaze me. I don't think that the presentation matters more than the answers, but presentation matters some, doesn't it? A wrong answer that looks nice is still wrong, but a right answer that I can't read is just as bad.

A bit offtopic, but still somewhat relevant...

[wyrdone.livejournal.com]

Per conversation in car a while back:

1994: http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/vtpubs/spectrum/sp941117/1e.html

2000: http://www.computerworld.com/careertopics/careers/training/story/0,10801,46793,00.html

"There was a decline [in computer science], a cycle where enrollments went up and down," says Dennis Kafura, head of the computer science department at Virginia Tech's College of Arts and Sciences. "But ever since '95, we've been on the upswing. We've grown 200% in the last five years. We had hit bottom and started coming back up." Computer science is now the largest major at the university, he adds.

Today: I couldn't find any numbers relating to class size or percentage of current enrollment, however, there are 47 CS professors currently. That is up from the 36 professors or so in 1995.

Re: A bit offtopic, but still somewhat relevant...

[rbandrews]

Then the dropout rate is something fierce, because the club of senior CS majors is a very exclusive one.
Maybe that's why they're such slackers; in order to stem the dropouts, the professors let them get away with it?

[robertliguori.livejournal.com]

Er, I have a clean version available on my computer. I wrote that up because I didn't have the E-R diagram avaliable on my computer (didn't know how to convert it to a format my non-Mac could read), and it was easier to write up the draft, and then type it later (which I did). I lef that around so you wouldn't think I did absolutely nothing on the project. I had no intention of turning in the draft. However, since you already had the requisite step in the printout, I didn't print my version out.

And it was recognizable as the project step. That was my good handwriting. There's a reason I'm in a major that wants everything typed.

Anyway, as I said, I'll make sure that we both know what and when we're doing the project farther in advance.

I am just up the stairs, you know. If you have an issue with me, feel free to yell. Will save wear and tear on electrons, and give you quicker feedback.

And yes, Professor Santos is cool.

[rbandrews]

Like I said, this was only partially about you. You spurred me into writing it, but I've been thinking about it for a while.

If you have handwriting that looks like that on a good day, then you should type things, or work to improve your handwriting.

I'm sorry if I'm being a jerk, but I hate it when people do poor work and then make excuses about it, which is what I see a lot of people in my major, not just you, doing. It puts me in a bad mood, and when I'm in a bad mood, I'm a jerk.