Attrition vs Commitment
Attrition has a way of weeding out those who are not truely committed.
Great point, Carlton. What do you do to make sure that your students understand what's at stake when they do their job?
I agree with you overall theme. The business we are involved in has dangers to ourselves, our customers, our peers working around us, and to the public at large. We need those primarily who are commited to doing an excellent job at thier new chosen profession. Lives are at stake. I don't want a half hearted effort when so much rides on competence. That is one of the driving forces that makes me want to teach competence to those student who have chosen this profession.
I think as an educator that we must try and help every student make the right decision. The students have made a commitment to sign up to come to our school and we need to commit to their success. When a student comes to us and wants to drop out we need to take the time and really listen to the students needs and help them come to a logical decision. We will probably never be able to keep everyone and sometimes students ralize this isn't want they want to do so lets help realize what is it they want to do, and in most cases it staying in school and graduating.
I am probably one of the least "friendly" instructors at my school. That's not to say that I am not friendly, because I am, but rather I am not my students' "best friend."
What I try to convey to my students is that they have chosen a career path that I am passionate about and I am trying to prepare them for a long and lucrative career in the same field. In order to succeed in this career path, certain concepts must be mastered and personal attitudes must be adjusted to meet the demands of the shop environment. I try to instill in my students the desire to learn, the will to succeed and to never settle for "good enough."
Those that are committed to their training will persevere through academic setbacks. Financial difficulties can be more problematic to overcome, but most will find a way. To the truly committed, failure is not an option.
During the first few hours of class, I have the students tell me plans for the future and what they hope to get out of the class. As time goes on, I watch them in the shop to see how motivated they are to complete the work. If I notice a person with a self motivation problem, I motivate them. If after I motivate them nothing changes, I ask them what they plan to do with the information gained in my class, then tell them what they could do with the information gained in the class. My questions lead the student to answers of questions the student has been asking themselves.
Attrition is away to weed out the less committed so when we send a student out to get a job so they do not make the school bad.
If your not in school for the right reasons, or dont have goals.............should you really be there anyway? I beleive those that arent there for the right reasons, and are pulling the class down, need a wakeup call and if they get weeded out that just shows they have no drive. Those that truley want to be there will feel the need to step it up and raise the bar a little. most of us dont want to fail but inherently we fall in a rut if we arent challenged.
Maybe they just havent been shown the true value.
Putting someone to the test finds their true value. Some will rise and some will fall. Keith
or weeding out those who don't think the training is worth the cost or didn't know how to overcome an obstacle or didn't get help when they needed it or ...
