Kimberly Chapman

A University Student's Responsibilities
High School
In high school, teachers have a more in-depth role in making sure you learn. Lessons cater more to a lower common denominator, proving that you get the basic idea is rewarded more than proving you can apply the idea in a complex manner, and you're given all the basics for things like how to write a sentence, a paragraph, a story, etc. Highschool is the time to practice learning and to practice the skills of literacy.
By the time you get to university, you are expected to know the fundamentals of grammar, basic mathematics, personal conduct, and study habits. While the actual information you know about a given topic may be minimal, you should at least have the tools necessary to go on and learn more without having to have the basicbuilding blocks of literacy shown to you.
If you have graduated from high school without learning these things, your school system is at fault for graduating you. All high school graduates in a first-world nation should be able to construct a grammatically correct sentence or paragraph. All high school graduates in countries with reasonable education systems should be able to do basic arithmeticwithout a calculator. All high school graduates in countries with reasonable education systems should be able to locate their country on an unmarked map or globe. They should be able to read comprehensively, to formulate and back up opinions, to use dictionaries and other reference materials, and to effectively self-evaluate on all of these things.
High schools that churn out graduates withoutthese skills are not helping students. They're intellectually crippling them, and setting them up for failure at the university level. If you graduated without these skills, go back to your high school principal or school board and tell them that their educational structure needs to be improved for the benefit of the students.
University or College
Once you are in post-secondary education, it is nolonger the teacher's role to supply you with the building blocks of literacy. It is no longer their role to coddle students and cater to the slowest in the class at the expense of those who understand.
The responsibilities of post-secondary educators are:
* To present all relevant course information in a clear manner.
* To ensure that the relevant material is covered within the timeallotted for the class.
* To make all reading material available or to indicate where it is available, such as the library or book store, and to ensure there is enough for every student to have reasonable and fair access.
* To have office hours during which students can ask for help, clarification, etc.
* To ensure that either their office hours fit the academic schedule of all students orto make time available by appointment otherwise.
* It is not an instructor's duty to schedule around non-academic schedules such as sports, work, parties, frat/sorority events, etc.
* To show up to class and not let the TAs do all of the lecturing.
* To be able to effectively communicate in the language(s) of the university, both orally and in writing (except in language immersioncourses).
* To be respectful to students asking questions and not insult, put-down, mock, or otherwise belittle a student for not understanding.
* To grade all tests and assignments fairly and on an appropriate schedule.
* To set up tests and assignments to demonstrate learning, not to demonstrate how well students cope with stress.
* To be flexible and helpful to students withspecial needs, such as disabilities or terrible emergencies (ie family death).
* To give students all of the information necessary to succeed.
It is not the professor's job to give you a passing grade when you don't deserve one. It is not their job to grant you exceptions that would be unfair to everyone else. It is not their job to chase after you to come to class, nor to give you special...