Interesting debate on work ethics

2008-02-23 15:55:00

Here's an interesting question for you: if we want our kids/students to put in effort in their work, why don't we do the same? Isn't that a bit two-faced?

Case in point: my own studies. It's been suggested a few times that I'm working myself into my grave at school, by putting so much effort into each and every assignment and report.

It's true that, for most of my reports, I put in extra research that isn't needed. Without said research I feel that I'm doing a half-assed job, because I wouldn't completely understand the subject matter. I enjoy studying extra materials from a field that I'm only in the process of entering, because without them I feel less confident. I've even been complimented on my efforts by a teacher or two.

However, now people (both teachers and fellow students) are suggesting that I could save a lot of time by skipping all that research. "Just find the answers to the questions and move on." "Don't bother with all those nice looking reports." "Do you really think someone's going to read a 25 page paper every time you submit one?"

Now, I'm not disregarding their suggestions, because it's certainly true that I could do with a little spare time. Too much work and no play and all that. So yes, I will start accepting 60-70% as a good score as well.

However, the problem I have with all of this is that we would -love- to have our students go apeshit over their course material! We'dn love it if they got totally enthused about maths, or english lit, or PE. So why are we so quick to jump to the "easy road" ourselves? That just feels illogical to me and actually a little bit like a betrayal as well.


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