Today I got an email
telling me I needed to order the textbook I will be using this spring to teach
Marketing Promotions. This really got me thinking about my academic career and
a few basic issues I have with myself teaching (although I am super excited to teach)… A) I can’t use a textbook
because then I would have to read it, and I rarely read as a student. B) I
skipped more classes than I attended. When I did attend I was late or sat in
the back searching for the end of the internet or playing Farmville. C) I think
grades are kind of a joke and often times a poor indication of talent. D) When
I actually had to give an hour presentation for a seminar I talked for a short
8 minutes before turning my presentation into a group discussion, and E) the
idea of creating a syllabus and having something so structured sounds craaazy…. My life and business operates on the day to
day…
For longer than I can
remember I thought a lot of things school related didn’t make sense and
required too much effort for the payoff. (And yet I made it through 3 degrees
somehow). When I was in elementary school I would write one letter very neatly
and then decide I could do it once and there was no point to take the time to
keep writing during handwriting class… If I could add something I just didn’t
see the point in continuing to finish the math homework, so I would just stare
off into space and not do my homework for weeks at a time. Unfortunately my
parents would find out about this behavior and I would be locked in the house
until I caught up, spending entire weekends doing mindless work. In high school
I thought things seemed boring and not worth the effort so I would cheat on
subjects I didn’t like. I talked my little sister into writing a paper for me
once (ok maybe twice). In college I found ways to do the minimum effort, sign
up for the easiest professors, and lived on the theory that Cs were degrees. In
law school I never saw the point in going to class when I could learn something
on my own. It was like getting teeth pulled having to listen to some of those
professors, BORING. I will say I actually enjoyed several of my MBA classes and
did attend most of the time, although a few of those were a snooze. So how
do I as a professor make things better for my students?
Everyone laughs at me when I say I am going to have students market BAD Sportz and the Totally RAD
80s Run as part of class projects this spring, throwing my students into my real world marketing issues, but wouldn’t some sort of real world
experience be better than reading a textbook or taking tests? You can do case study after case study but
isn’t it more beneficial to see the impact your efforts make on a real life
business, positive or negative?
How can I hold my
students to standards of attending class when I never wanted to attend? Who am
I to say they learn best by listening to me talk? I remember when I told
everyone I wasn’t taking the BAR review course because it was $2,000 and that I
would just study on my own. Everyone told me I would fail… Turns out I passed while I read the book from the pool,
and those brainwashed students that didn’t think they could do it on their own
were out $2,000 to listen to some guy talk through the TV. So how do I
incorporate teaching styles and standards to fit more students and have them do
their best work when I am a prime example that not everyone learns the same way.
And who am I to grade
someone, especially in marketing which is so subjective? What might sound
really stupid to one person could be a million dollar idea to another. Grades are a hard thing. I was never really
into the whole details thing, so naturally I only studied enough to get an
average grade in income tax. Crazy enough the week after we got our grades a
friend who scored one of the highest grades in our class had me doing her taxes
because she couldn’t figure them out. She probably got more job offers too…
When I was in high school we had to choose companies to play a stock market
game. Everyone else in my accounting class came with these long stories of why
they picked their companies based on all this research. I showed up and named
my companies. When asked why I simply said I asked my dad in the morning while
I ate my breakfast. Figured he always read the stocks section and invested so
he would know. Some teachers would think I wasn’t prepared and would reward
those idiots for their supposed detailed research vs. what could be seen as
laziness on my part. Turns out my stocks did the best, being the only stocks in
my class to win money.
I am highly critical of
the education system in general but only because I want people to do great work
and have a chance to succeed. I think several classes and professors are very
set in their ways, as well as focus on students messing up or not being
prepared in one area and taking away points, instead of promoting ways to earn
points by using students strengths. Even listening to my
teacher friends they talk more about the kids that struggle, instead of
focusing on positives so many times. Maybe I will just give several unique and
different opportunities to earn points and whoever earns them gets an A. Is it
so bad to give an entire class of students A grades by uncovering each of their
talents instead of throwing them all into a room and rewarding the nerd that
reads the textbook word for word? And, without these students I don’t even have
a job teaching. So, how do I structure my class so they can get the most
benefit for the money they are paying (or will be paying back each month for
the next ten years of their lives)?
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