The Plainsman Press - South Plains College

Ray Buffington, editor-in-chief

When one steals something, can they blame the victim for pressing charges?

This is the same, in a sense, when professors dole out grades to students. When a student fails horribly on an exam, can they blame the professor for giving them an ‘F’?

While taking a course during the Summer I session, I encountered an odd situation concerning a student and a professor. The student, apparently, had been upset because he had been dropped from the class for not adhering to the absence policy that was clearly stated on the syllabus that the professor had handed out at the beginning of the semester. The student had been absent too many times, violating this policy, so the professor dropped him from the class. The student refused to believe this was fair, and began to scream threats and obscenities at the professor. The student eventually left the classroom, but the next day there was a campus police officer standing guard at the professor’s classroom door.

This entire situation made me livid. The new college student was obviously wet behind the gills, but I was confused as to why he could not take responsibility for his own actions, as an adult would.

Apparently, some fresh-out-of-high-school students are having a hard time adjusting to the idea of growing up. Some may have preconceived notions of college being party-time central. While this may seem true at times, some have already lost sight of the real reason behind attending college, getting an education.

When it comes time to take the first eager, anxious step into “Big-Kid’s” school, otherwise known as college, the new student becomes laden with the burdens of excessive studying, loads of homework, and some wise, but nonchalant professors. Unlike what they may have been accustomed to, they are only given the basic necessities that will get them by, and then are politely shoved on their way with no one to hold their hand. With an adult or college-student lifestyle, they must shed all their old reliances of care-free teachers, doesn’t-matter-if-it-is-three-weeks-later homework, and grades of A’s that magically appear on their report cards even though they haven’t turned in a single assignment for that class.

In college, when you don’t do the work, you don’t get the grade. No if’s, and’s, or but’s about it. What surprises most of the newbie scholars is the fact that they no longer have the ability to talk their way out of a bad grade with fluttering eyelashes, mountains of chocolate, or charming smiles. Their choice to drink oceans of alcohol the night before a major exam permanently affects their GPA, summoning the inquisitive fire-breathing parents to a Q & A session with their child as to why the fruit of their loins has failed an important exam.

This starts what I fondly like to call the “’Sludge’ Rolls Down the Mountain” effect. For this paper, I’ve replaced the original first word of this phrase with one that will create fewer blushes from the virgin-eared. I’m sure you catch my drift.

The “’Sludge’ Rolls Down the Mountain” effect basically describes the process of what happens when something bad or negative occurs between a chain of people, and who ultimately gets the metaphorical ‘Sludge’ dropped on his or her head.

In cases that deal with college students who rely on their parents for the cash to go play with, when they achieve a low score due to a higher emphasis on recreational activities, and less on studying, they are the ones who get ‘Sludge’-ed. It is quite amusing to think that if they hadn’t gone to that “kegger” the night before, they wouldn’t have created ‘Sludge’ to deal with. So basically they brought the ‘Sludge’ on themselves. They take the heat and slaps to their hands from their mothers, fathers, step-fathers, step-mothers, great-aunts, crazy grandmothers, cranky grandfathers, and so forth, promising to never do it again, and then promptly head out to the bar for consoling cocktails.

However, there have been cases when the professor becomes the ‘Sludge’-ee, not the ‘Sludge’-er. We begin with the fresh-out-of-high-school student who is as giddy as can be to be away from the folks and around people his or her own age. He or she just can’t wait to get their minor hands on a wine cooler or a 40oz plastic bottle of beer. So they find a group of friends and begin partying like its 1999 the night before the first big exam. Since there had been no studying achieved in order to prepare the student for the exam, he or she fails it. The ‘Sludge’ has been created, handed down from the professor to the student.

Money-tree Mom and Dad are eager to know how this new student is doing, especially since they are forking over loads of dough in order to educate their little darling. Having known when the first exam was to be, they give their child a phone call to see how it went. The dread-filled student confesses to the bad grade, as the ‘Sludge’ rolls from the student to the parents.

The parents are enraged. After many threats of a reducd cash flow, no car, and even forced visits to the crazy, raving-mad aunt in the nursing home, the ‘Sludge’ has been heated and molded into a spike, then thrown back at the student.

The student, now sufficiently scorched from their parents’ tongue lashing, becomes angry. He or she searches for a target to which they can funnel this anger. What better target than the person who, in their mind, created the ‘Sludge’? The professor.

Irrational thoughts begin to float around in the student’s head. Such as: “He/She didn’t cover the material well enough,”. “He/She spoke too fast. How could anyone keep up well enough to take decent notes?”. “He/She is out to get me. I could tell from the first day He/She didn’t like me because I have blue hair,”. “I’m paying for this class, so I should get the grade I choose,”, and so forth.

At this time, the student decides to confront the professor about the grade. The majority of the time the professor will just shrug and explain that policies about exams are in the syllabus handed out the first day of class. If the student would have taken the time to go over the syllabus, the student would understand that he or she is at fault for the decision that he or she made, and that there tend to be no “do-overs” for exams.

Sadly, the student will sometimes react with harsh words, physical threats, and even actual violence, bringing the ‘Sludge’ back to the professor. This annoys me.

We, as college students, are trying to expand our minds while adjusting to an adult world we will be living in shortly after graduation. So how about we start acting likes adults? Since when is it OK to take out anger created from a bad grade on the professor?

Students who receive bad grades and then throw tantrums are simply just petty. If anyone could stomp his or her feet, pout, scream and then get his or her way, everyone would be doing it. We would perpetually be living in a world of corporate-business-running, suit-wearing 3-year olds who have no sense of dignity.

The professors are not baby-sitters. They complete their job descriptions with syllabi, lectures, and an incredible knowledge of their subject. Students are not babies. They need to keep up their end of the bargain by studying, taking detailed notes, and asking plenty of questions. The grade the professor gives you is the grade that you have earned.

The transition from high school education to college education is not easy. Students become stressed out from the immense increase of work they must complete in order to achieve their desired grade.

But that’s just part of the package of growing up and handling new responsibilities. Let’s all try to be responsible adults and make sure our priorities are straight so we can keep a happy student-filled classroom, and a ‘Slu