Hi everybody.

[JulesW]

I'm a short-time lurker and thought I 'd introduce myself.

I teach at a small university in the MD/DC/VA area and I'm also a low-level administrator.

Due to the giant shift in the way people have been looking at education in the past two decades or so, I have recently (within the past five years or so) started to consider my students and their parents customers.

A majority of students now believe that any student who pays tuition deserves excellent grades. Parents are somewhat more likely to believe that the student should do excellent work in order to get excellent grades. Some parents, however, do not--or, more accurately, I should say that they believe their little darlings when the little darlings lie to them about the amount of effort they have put into passing their classes.

There are still students who work diligently (and are rewarded), and students who enjoy the exchange of ideas that occurs in class, but sadly, these types of students are becoming rarer with each passing year.

I will be posting some stories of very sucky customers...and their parents.

[Primer]

Welcome, Jules!

Just remember, FERPA regulations preclude you from discussing anything (identifiable) about a student to anybody else without the student's explicit (preferably written) permission. That helps with those pesky parents!

[Magpie]

That helps with those pesky parents!

Ok, as a TA I've never had to deal with parents (most of the profs manage to not have to, that's what the first year department is for), but I know that that privacy legislation really doesn't help around here. It shouldn't apply, it's their child they're asking about. The number of times that they specified that the school couldn't discuss anything with parents at the pre-orientation events (come see the campus! Bring your parents so we can tell them to leave us alone!) really shows just how badly some parents don't get it.

[r2cagle]

to

What classes do you teach?

[JulesW]

Thanks for the big welcome, everyone.

I teach literature courses, along with some other general education classes. Our faculty is small, so our choice(s) of specialty don't preclude being asked to teach freshman-level general ed. classes. I actually enjoy those classes, however, as we see students from every school and every major.

Privacy issues are different from those in secondary education, actually. Some of my suckiest customers were parents seeking privileged information on their grown kids. A clue by 4 is often needed.