In a message of , Matt Smith (1:3644/6) writes:
 MS>    College teaching comes with unique discipline problems that ES 
 MS>teachers do not face.  Have you ever had half your 9:00 A.M. class come 
 MS>in drunk? (It's common in colleges.)     Excessive partying is a major 
I don't know where you went to school, but I have been teaching at the  
college level for over 30 years, and I  have never seen a drunk student in  
class.  Ever.
 MS>factor in _college_ students flunking out, according to various studies 
 MS>(and the experiences of most profs).  Administrators hassle profs when 
 MS>they give too many low grades, many of which are drinking-related.
We flunk lots of physics students.  We never get complaints from  
administrators.
 MS>    While college kids will generally stay seated once they get to 
 MS>class, many just cut class.  If many students get low grades due to 
 MS>cutting class, the administration blames the prof...not the student.
Mot in my university. 
 MS>
 MS>SK> volition. Try teaching a 2nd or 3rd grade class of sixty kids. 
 MS>SK> Please.
 MS>SK> Try it. Let us know what happens. 
 MS>
 MS>    I know.  I wandered around the room as a kid in kindergarten, due 
 MS>to being bored stiff with the material read by a teacher who badgered 
 MS>my mother for having taught me to _read_ before school age.  (My 
 MS>first-grade teacher avoided the problem by simply sending me to the 
 MS>library during what was "story time" for the rest of the class!)
Matt, I am always amazed at how much you think you know and by how much you  
extrapolate from your own very limited experiences and perspectives.
I have been working very closely with teachers for a decade, running summer  
institutes, etc., as well as operating fidonet and internet host services.  I 
 am amazed at what we ask teachers to do with minimal support. At the college 
 level, nobody is forced to be in school at all unless they want to be.  (The 
 draft ended a long time ago.)  School teachers deal with large classes of 
kids  with very diverse abilities and achievement levels.  Some don't speak 
much  English; others have substantial disabilities or psychological 
problems.  I am  awed at what they are asked to accomplish.  Sure, not all of 
the teachers are  as outstanding as we would like, but that's true in any 
profession.  I  certainly don't envy their job, and certainly not for the pay 
most of them  get.
 
--- msged 1.97S ZTC
---------------