Job Discussion Forums

[denise]

My school has eight-week terms--seven weeks of class, one week of finals/TOEFL/grading. We are just about to start the fifth week.

In one of my classes, there is a student who, for personal/emotional/psychological/whatever reasons has not come to class yet this term. (And if I remember correctly, she came to class ONE DAY last year.) She is still living in the dorm, and says that she doesn't want to live at home with her parents. What she does all day every day is anyone's guess.

Apparently, she has decided that she wants to come to class again, so I may well see her in my 9am class. She has missed FOUR FULL WEEKS of class! Sure, I'll give her a syllabus, tell her what we have covered, and allow her to make up her work/quizzes if she comes to my office hours, but I do not want to take any time away from the students who have been showing up daily and working hard. It would be grossly unfair to them to give extra attention to one student who, quite frankly, has done nothing to earn extra attention. (We've been training our students to tell us when they're sick, going out of town, etc., so we know where they are and what they need to make up, and we rarely hear from her.)

What do you guys/gals think? Are we counselors as well as teachers? Are we parents? Should I hold her hand and gently help her along, or treat her like an adult (I teach university-aged students) and expect her to take responsibility for herself? How much responsibility should I take upon myself to get her caught up?

I have spoken to a few friends about this situation, and they have all said that it's not my responsibility to mother her. Still, I feel like mothering her would be the compassionate thing to do. What would you folks do? Have you faced similar situations? I am really worried about this, and I am not looking forward to my first class tomorrow morning.

d

[gugelhupf]

I firmly believe that all educators have a pastoral responsibility for their students so you are right to have made the efforts that you have done so far, and I believe that you would be right to continue offering support. This being so, there comes a time when a minority of students need a higher level of care than a teacher can provide and it sounds like this case needs referring on. I'm saying that from the perspective of working in a UK university where there are student support services and trained counsellors etc. which I realise might be very different from your situation.

We had a young woman who basically failed to turn up for more than a few sessions for a year, then talked the University into letting her switch course and repeat another year. In her repeat year her attendance was virtually zero and in the end she was "deemed to have withdrawn" as university parlance goes. It transpired that she had never been interested in going to university, had only ever gone due to parental pressure, and that her parents had no idea there was any problem until she was finally de-registered. She had wasted two years of her life just because she was scared of letting down her parents, which is exactly what happened in the end.

[Gordon]

Denise, I think you need to be firm. I'm not sure if you're in a university. What kind of a school is it? What do your colleagues do? There comes a time when these students need to take responsibility for themselves and not get 8, 9 chances. It just perpetuates their problem of irresponsibility.

On the first day of classes at my university, I lay out the ground rules and even do it in writing so there is no chance of misunderstanding. They know how may classes they can miss before they fail and how they are graded, their texts... Students will push you as far as they think they can get away with it. This weekend I have been grading many of my classes and had some difficult choices to make, who to fail and who not to.

I agree with you that you should not take time away from your good students to deal with this lazy one. No special treatment. Let us know how it goes.

[ntropy]

How old is the girl and what kind of school do you teach at?

[Bindair Dundat]

[Will.]

Surely there is a system in place to refer students who do nor=t attend class and exhibit such behaviour?

[denise]

I teach in the IEP program of an American university (a satellite campus). We do have a counselor who tracks down delinquent students and tries to figure out what their problems are. He has tried to contact her (this year and last), and basically just discovered that she was still here but not coming to classes.

I'm not alone in having to deal with this. Aside from our counselor, there are other teachers she'll have to work with. (I'm one of three--the other two both seem to be more mothering, whereas I'm the more hands-off "you are adults so you can get yourselves out of bed or not on your own" type). I've got a really great, supportive environment, so I'm not worried about anyone (counselor, other teachers, or supervisor, with whom I intend to speak the first chance I get!) thinking I've done the "wrong" thing.

As far as grades & not letting the students get away with too much--just this year, we set a new school-wide attendance policy: two freebies, and after that every absence takes off two points from the students' grades. Mathematically, the highest score this student can get in my class (if I apply the policy to her starting from the beginning of the term, which I probably won't because it just seems too mean) is 64%.

I think one of the hardest things that I'm having to deal with is the acceptance that, although I try to treat my students like mature adults capable of taking care of themselves, a lot of 18-20 year old Japanese students simply cannot.

d

[Will.]

Is there a sort of 'buddy programme' you could introduce her to? It seems a strange situation. There is normally a friendship group that welcomes new students to the country like the Americam -Japanese club or suchlike perhaps they might have a link to what is going on, or be able to assist in some way.
Good luck along the way, keep us posted

[Kurochan]

Would you have the option of giving her an incomplete, and then giving her the final grade after she completes extra work for you? That would be a way to know if she's really serious about completing the class, give her a chance to get back on track if that's what she wants to/can do, and will give you some decision-making leeway.

[ntropy]

Give her what she earned in the class. Nothing. Fail her. She should be put on probation or asked to find a program which suits her needs better.

[dmb]

At the end of the day no matter how much help or advice we give students have to be responsible for their own learning

[denise]

Thanks for the replies, everyone. The student has come to class two days in a row now (gasp!). We've had a few talks about her. It looks like she will move up to the next level (provided that she comes for the rest of the term!) based solely on her ability, not on her work and class performance. She's actually below where she should be--we had her in a higher level last year and she freaked out, so we moved her down.

I haven't gone out of my way for her. I gave her a syllabus and a quiz (she happened to show up on quiz day, and she did better than many of the other students!), and she purchased a book on her own. Silly me, though--it didn't even occur to me to introduce her to the other students! One of the other teachers did that in another class. Oooops.

d

[Gordon]

When I have a student come into the class and they have missed the last 3 or 4 weekly classes, I make an announcement in the class welcoming the "guest".
I know it isn't nice, but neither is missing a month of classes without a good reason.

[ls650]

[Glenski]

Denise,
Your situation sounds exactly like a few that I have had in Sapporo. Like you wrote, for whatever emotional/social/physical reasons, some students never seem to attend, and suddenly they show up for the last day of class.

In Japan, yes, you are a teacher, counselor (few schools have them), and proxy-parent. That's just the way things are handled here. Fortunately, you have a life support system: the rest of your Japanese staff, including the student's homeroom teacher, the staff nurse, and perhaps the head of the grade she is in.

In your situation, however, (a university), there is no homeroom teacher or head of her grade, and the counselor seems to have done a rather poor job. All you can do is evaluate her on what she has done, keep in touch with the counselor, and move on.