We are getting near the end of the summer.  There are just under three weeks left of summer school.  I've been teaching a summer-long class (not those silly 5 week long classes that so many places do for summer school).  Anyway, now the questions are coming.  A couple of students who had been scoring in the 30's on exams, and not much better on labs and homework have figured out that they are not passing and have dropped.  Some have been in the 80's on exams, and 90's on homework and labs, and they realize that they have a shot at an A if they work hard.  Others are looking at a C, and they feel that they'll be happy with that.  At least one is thinking that a D will be the best that he can hope for, and so he is going to try to get his rear in gear to at least pass the class.  These are students who are figuring it out on their own. 

Then, one comes to me and asks, "Is there any hope of my passing this class?" 

"Well," I say, "There's always hope.  But you need to really concnetrate on the class.  You won't pass if you keep going the way that you are going.  You need to actually show up, do the work, and turn things in to be graded.  You need to spend the time on the class, and you need to decide if passing the class is a priority or not.  What means more, passing the class or the rest of your life?  You clearly are smart enough, and you clearly have the math background, the problem solving skills, and so forth to do well in the class.  However, you are not putting the effort into it that is needed." 

So, he went away to think about that.

He really can pass.  He does show in class (when he bothers to be there) that he can grasp what we are doing.  When I set up a problem on the blackboard, and then pose a question to the class on what step we should do next, he frequently comes up with a correct approach, especially if the best next step is a derivative, integral, or some other procedure using calculus.  He can do this.  The problem is that he is trying to do too much.  He is trying to work full time this summer and take a difficult class.  He works some distance away, and he has to commute.   That is why he misses class and almost always drags in late, he says.  Working all day and taking an evening class leaves no time to study or do homework, which is why he says that he is doing poorly and not turning things in.  Well, not doing the homework is why he is doing poorly, for sure.  If they will just do the homework problems, then they'll be ready for the exams.  That's how this class works.  I fully sympathize with the whole thing of life interfering with studies.  I've had that problem, too.  You need to work to pay the bills, including tuition.  But, you need time to do the classwork.  In the summer, the students also try to run around with friends who are not taking classes in the summer, and that takes time away from studies.  Taking a physics class, or any other time intensive class in the summer is hard, even with my summer long class.  It is still accelerated from the regular semester.  But, what is the solution?

I honestly don't know.  The system isn't set up to further the aims of non-traditional students.  I went to college after high school.  My parents paid for the university's tuition, with the help of a scholarship and student loans.  I had to pay off the student loans myself.  I did get a small job on campus for a while, but it was working with one of the professors in one of the research labs, so it was directly related to the field.  The same with summer jobs.  I didn't do summer school.  Graduate school, though, I had a teaching assistantship, like most of the other graduate students.  That took more time, but it was still part time, and it was directly related to what I was doing.  Also, there were more student loans. 

Students today, though, try to juggle full time jobs and college.  When I was a student, full time college was full time.  I spent most of my time outside of class studying, doing homework problems, lab write-ups, papers, etc.  I spent untold hours in the library, reading, researching, studying.  Yeah, there was some play time, but it was mostly study.  I didn't have time for a job then!  Yet, almost all of my students work.  Some work part time, but many try to work full time.  They have to.  Tuition is astronomical.  Textbook prices are beyond astronomical.  Most of my students pay far more for textbooks than they do tuition.  I occasionally teach a class over at the big private university across town, and a single semester there costs as much as my entire 4 year degree did.  Parents simply can not afford to foot the bills.  Scholarships and grants don't provide near enough support.  Nearly 75% of the students are on some sort of financial aid.  Most of that is student loans.  Some students are graduating college now with student loan debt that approximates a mortgage.  To keep that down, they work while going to school.  But, they still have to go full time, otherwise they don't qualify for any student loans at all, and worse, they have to start paying back the ones that they already have if they are not full time students.  Many also try to remain full time students so that they can get affordable health insurance.  But, working gives them little time to be students.

Then, even worse, they are programmed by the public schools to think that they don't need to work outside of class.  Most of the schools here give very little homework, and they use class time to work on the homework (isn't that classwork rather than homework?).  So, students get used to the idea that they can learn all that they need in class.  They don't realize that they need to spend hours outside of class each day.  They don't realize that college in-class  time is just setting the stage for them to learn!  So, they try to work and go to school.  Worse, many of my students went and did something else for a few years between high school and college.  Among those other things, all too often, were getting married and having kids.  So, now they try to add family time to a full time college schedule and full time work.  Something has to give.  But what?

Do we assign less work to accomodate these new type of students?  But, wouldn't that mean less learning?  Yeah, I know that some faculty are doing just that.  They are cutting material out of the classes to make them easier.  But doesn't that devalue the class, and ultimately the college degree?  Surely that isn't the answer.  What if students took fewer classes so that they could manage the time?  Well, they can't.  If they took fewer classes, then they don't qualify for financial aid, insurance, and a host of other things.  Here in Texas, there are even penalties for taking longer than four years to get an undergraduate degree, so that is an added incentive to sign up for a full load (and the legislature has been talking of making those penalties far stiffer). 

I just don't know.  I don't really see how my students manage.  It looks like getting through college is just getting tougher and tougher.  I sort of wonder how I'd do it if I were a student today.

-Astroprof