Another college semester is two weeks in and yours truly finds himself in another collection of mind-numbingly easy graduate classes. Two different flavors; system dynamics and evolution. Neither is a challenge. Not to be too presumptuous, but I could teach both of these classes. I'm not simplifying things, I really could. At least it won't be too tough. Three small papers, two midterms, two thousand dollars and I'll have another six graduate credits to apply to my lateral movement through my district's salary scale. Yippee. Besides, they might be stupid easy, but they are definitely more interesting than anything my friends take in their administrator degree sequences. I am always surprised at how, even at the graduate level, students can be incredibly lazy. A constant theme tonight, was whining about how difficult the reading for the systems course was. It wasn't. It wasn't particularly sexy reading, but it was nothing crazy. Likewise the evolution course, where a fellow student (and certified social studies teacher) confided to me that the biggest issue he had with the professor was that class tended to last for the full three hours that it was scheduled to last. The horror. I think he was a bit surprised when I explained that I was perfectly happy to be getting what I am paying for in terms of content.
Both professors have been painfully explicit in what they expect on papers regarding academic honesty. I get it. I read plenty of papers written by students that are less than expertly sourced. But I teach high school students. I would hope that by the time a student is at the post-graduate level of study, she/he has learned how to write a fucking paper. Sadly, that doesn't seem to be the case. Both instructors went to great lengths to explain how a source should be attributed and almost pleaded with us to be honest. Unbelievable. Were I in their position, I would briefly mention it and then gleefully nail any thief to the wall.