Dear Paul. I am sorry you are leaving our department. We will miss you. You were a good student and we wish you the best.
But before you go, a word or two. I am puzzled by some of your comments. Perhaps you can clarify them for me. You say your English professors were good, that the material was good, that you loved many of the classes, that taking part in them made you a better writer, that you love reading, interpreting and debating the texts, and that you are still proud of the short stories and plays you wrote. My first response is, what more do you want?
You say you got grades you didn’t deserve and that you and your classmates were victims of a system that was exploiting you. I don’t understand. How is the system exploiting you if you’re not doing the work, not reading the texts, “shoveling” as you say (and bragging about it!)
I remember you as a good student and as an exceptional writer. I also remember you as a thoughtful student who often contributed mature insights to class discussions. But you say “I don’t want to be told how good I already am.” You never mentioned that to me. If you had, I would have pushed you a lot harder. I might have even given you a C+ instead of that B+ I gave you, even though you stubbornly resisted my suggestions for clarification of your theme. Was it at that point I should have called you on your bullshit? I don’t think so. It would have felt counterproductive to me. But if that was what you wanted, I wish you would have said it.
It’s odd that you confess trying to cheat the system and then blame the “system” for allowing you to cheat. “I was bad; why didn’t you punish me?” First of all, teachers are not necessarily trained to uncover cheaters. They tend to give students the benefit of the doubt. A bad habit, I admit, but probably necessary if teachers want to concentrate on teaching and not policing. Most of us don’t like thinking that the students are pulling the wool over our eyes. Your example of the 93 per cent awarded to several students for what you considered to be inferior work is lamentable, if accurate, but it is after all only one anecdote. And it doesn’t seem to mesh with the fact that I regularly get complaints from students that I’m being too harsh in my grading.
I understand that you are disappointed in the education you have received to date as an English major and that you feel it has been time wasted. Forgive me if I appear too harsh, but the wasted time is time you wasted. You say that you should not have gotten an A- if you didn’t read the text. I agree. So you must be very good at bullshit (only using your word here). And whose responsibility is that? Surely not the professor’s. What’s missing in your argument is the understanding that a student chooses to go to university, and that it is the student’s responsibility to make the most of that rare opportunity. The student is expected to meet the professor halfway, and that means reading the texts! Otherwise, it surely is a waste to be in a classroom; that is where I totally agree with you.
Now that it’s out—your confession, I mean—I for one am very willing to challenge you and fail you when you deserve to fail, as you request. But I guess it’s too late for that.
I wish you well in your new major, but let me have one parting shot. I argue that this article you wrote about changing your major is as good as it is–as articulate, as capable in its critical thinking–because you did spend some time as an English major. However, there are some flaws, structurally, a few logical fallacies, an insufficient amount of specific support for your argument. At present, you’re hovering around a B- or C+, but I would certainly give you the opportunity for a rewrite.
John Carroll
This is a response to Paul Esau’s Opinion article “So long English major: It wasn’t me it was you.”
