For a while, I’ve been working on a summary, a manifesto of sorts… about how I felt as a student at a university and how I view what I want, when I start my Master’s program… whenever that may be. This is still a work in progress, but here it is:
The Student’s Manifesto
Dear Professor, as a student, I place my trust in you. I’m trusting you to teach me relevant concepts, tools and ideas that will help me to achieve my future goals and crazy ambitions. I realize I don’t know everything, hence why I’m here at university.
I do have a voice and I will no longer be silent. I deserve to receive a relevant education in every area I study. I’m not just another student in your classroom. I’m a paying customer. I’m a sponge that desires to soak up knowledge and be mentored. I’m not some little pea-brained student looking for a dictator to tell me that I know nothing and I can’t bring my laptop into your class. I’m looking for a mentor. Someone to guide me as I start to develop and refine the skills that will help me make a living in a few short years. To be brutally honest, you are not doing your job, if you are teaching me a textbook that I could read on my own time. At that point you are a facilitator, not a teacher.
You are not doing me any service either, if you haven’t worked professionally in the area you are teaching me. Let’s face it… how can you effectively teach me something that you don’t have experience in? If you don’t have the professional experience, you don’t have much credibility in my book. If you do have the experience, I love to hear your war stories! In fact, that is one of the most fascinating ways for me to learn about the real world. But let’s not forget technology and techniques have changed since the 1970’s, 1980’s, or 1990’s. Please be sure you are teaching me relevant information that will help me get that job once I leave here.
I’m trusting that you know what you are teaching, that you have lived it, you have breathed it, you’ve made a living from doing it, and that you are constantly learning about the new advancements in that area as well. Professor, whether you realize it or not, I’m trusting you with my future. Please teach me what I need to know to get my start once I leave here. I don’t want to be average, I want to stand out and be challenged. Please be my mentor, not my dictator.
This is just my $0.02! While at university I had absolutely amazing professors and some really terrible ones.
The professors that really made an impact on me had these things in common:
- Real life experience
- A mentorship attitude towards their students.
- Taught us relevant information
