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Are All Teachers Hypocrites?

6/1/2014

2 Comments

 
As teachers, we have a duty not only to teach our students the content of our courses but how to function in society so that they have the better chance to be successful.  We often have to show tough love by enforcing deadlines, creating seating charts, and strictly correcting errors on writing assignments.  But when class is over are we practicing what we preach?  More often than not, the answer is no.


More than half of the presentation proposals that were submitted for this year's KOTESOL International Conference were submitted in the three-day period before the deadline.  A quarter were sent on the last day.  Ten more submissions came in after the deadline.  Educators had more than three months to prepare and send their proposals but chose to wait until the very last minute.  We roll our eyes when freshmen behave like this and then do the same thing ourselves.


Another example of teachers behaving like students can be observed while attending academic conferences.  When students go into a new class for the first time they tend to sit in the back of the room.  A few keeners will sit in the front but the room usually fills up from the back.  Go to any conference and you will see the same behavior from teachers.  We sit in the back, pull out of phones, and try to sneak out if the session is boring.  Sound familiar?


A third example can be seen when teachers post things online (English teachers are also guilty of this).  Typos abound.  Words are misspelled and errors with homophones such as there/their/they're are frequent.  "Why didn't you check you're work before submitting it" we ask our students.  For the same reason we didn't read our own post before clicking send, I guess...


Do as I say and not as I do.  Teachers need to do more than make rules in our courses.  We need to model strategies for success and actually practice what we preach.
2 Comments
mikecorea link
6/2/2014 09:53:06 am

I think we have a fundamental disagreement over the meaning of a deadline. I almost always wait till the end of a time period to submit and I actually think it is far stranger to apply 3 months before the end of a deadline than 3 days before. Also, plenty of my students submit well in advance of deadlines and it is a pleasant surprise but I never roll my eyes when they are on time, and even a moment before the deadline.

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Tim
6/2/2014 10:26:39 am

That's cool. I guess it wouldn't be hypocritical for you to do the same thing, if that's the case.

If I suggested that three months in advance was the ideal time to submit then I apologize. The person who emailed me about their proposal being rejected because it was 11:59 where they were, not where the conference will be, was the "inspiration" for this post. If they had sent it in one or days prior to the deadline (again, they had three months) it wouldn't have been a problem (theirs, not mine).

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