stress is good???
One thing I have learned is that there is a certain amount of stress that is required to cause someone to be successful. If a student is in a school situation where there is absolutely no stress created by challenge or competition, then the student will have nothing to "rise to". A certain level of stress is necessary to bring out the best in people. As instructors, we should always try to alleviate the negative stress, and reduce the amount of unrealistic stress on our students. But we should also strive to encourage a positive reaction to the stress that Should exist in a classroom.
Every student needs to understand that college is supposed to be a preperation scenario for life in the industry of their studies. If college is too easy, we are setting our students up for failure in their chosen field. Obvoiusly the opposite is true as well... if school is too hard, the students will give up trying due to being overwhelmed. However, as facilitators of LIFE education, instructors in college situations need to make sure that the students understand that life is difficult. Life is stressful. And it is better for students to learn these lessons in school, which is a safer environment, and where there are teachers and support personnal to assist them, than to "skate" through college, only to "Hit a Wall" once they graduate and realize that there ARE challenges out there. There IS competition for Everything! People are going to stress you out, just for the purpose of watching your reaction, because they enjoy it.
So, as teachers, we need to educate our students about the reality of stress, and assist them in overcomming it. NOT try to eliminate it!!!!!
Agreed,as an instructor in the culinary field part of my responsibility is to prepare the students for the real world.Yes,it is school and I am not trying to create bootcamp.However there are times where we bring an element of reality into the classroom. This particular example does not, I believe drive students to quit. It shows them what they are about to face once in the industry.
For some students,the realization of their lack of fit to the industry will cause them to process the possibility of "quitting"
Should we as a school try to persuade this particular group of individuals "that it is all going to be alright" ???
What is the school's responsibility to address these issues?
I agree but the real problem results from the student's not knowing how to handle stress or having role models to show them how to deal with stress in a positive way.
How do your colleagues feel about your philosophy regarding attendance? Is this a topic of debate in the faculty room or departmental meetings?
As you say, it is a tough balancing act. Unfortunately, some students are quick to take advantage of a forgiving attendance policy and that frequently leads to a harsh reactive policy.
Do you feel that it is important for there to be a uniform attendance policy that is carefully practiced by everyone?
I like your caveat here about balancing classroom expectations with outside stresses. The original post was very spot on in terms of the fact that school should be challenging and challenges are necessarily stressful since there is always a possibility of failure or it wouldn't be a challenge.
I encounter a lot of students who welcome the challenges my classes confront them with, but when outside stressors are mounting, their desire and willingness to confront the challenges of class drastically diminish and they often "check-out". At such points I feel it is important to be as accommodating as possible without diminishing the importance of learning the material. There is a lot of emphasis in my program about how we are training them to be successful workers, and so we are encouraged to treat students severely if they are absent, just as they would be at work, and I do see some benefit for helping students understands the need to be diligent in the world of employment, but school is not employment, and sometimes this attitude is taken a little too far. Lots of times the stress of school is related to financial problems. So the correlating school with work isn't really appropriate since the former consumes students financial resources (in the short term) while the latter produces such resources.
It is a tough balancing act, no doubt, but I am interested in seeing my students succeed, not holding them to an artificial standard not mandated in the curriculum.
Good points. I suppose stress is a by-product of stretching and learning. In that scenario stress is part of the learning process and abets motivation.
However, it's important to remember that the stress may be from other sources, like balancing classroom expectations and outside forces.
