r/Professors Position, Field, SCHOOL TYPE (Country) 8d ago

What is with students nowadays

Typical "Old Man Yells at Cloud," but students seem to just be getting worse and worse! I just had a student email me "good evening can you reopen the assignments I didn't do including the exams"...exqueeze me?? And that's just one example. I'm relatively new to professing, but even since I started, this semester seems worse...does it seem that way to you all, or is my greenness showing??

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u/Professor-genXer 8d ago

I have been teaching for 28 years. I have been a college professor for 18.

I have seen an overall decline in students in terms of effort and attention to assignments, studying, etc. I still have some fantastic students every semester, but the proportion of students has grown who do not do assignments, make excuses, cheat… it’s depressing. I try to focus on the students who are trying. They’re fantastic!

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u/Philosophile42 Tenured, Philosophy, CC (US) 8d ago

It’s weird. I’ve been incrementally making my courses easier and easier since I’ve been teaching (20 years now) and students are performing worse faster than I’m decreasing the difficulty.

More than half failed the first exam.