The down side of being a goody-two-shoes doer is that it is easy to miss the point/purpose of this thing called life. While the safe road might be good, there may be other roads that are great! If you reach the end of the road and all you have to show for your journey is a house in the suburbs then what did you really accomplish?

It is Perplexing

A number of my students aren’t willing to “do” without thinking. Good for them. Some of them, though, do get sidelined … and that bothers me … a lot. I’ve spent a lot time over years trying to figure out why students fail. To be honest, it is perplexing. The student has left their home to come live on a university campus for the purpose of earning a college degree. They have essentially dedicated four years of their life to this purpose. They have also dedicated major financial resources, in many cases, taking on debt in order to achieve this goal.  This same student will then proceed to skip class, ignore homework assignments, and ultimately fail courses. The result is that they pay over $2,000 for the privilege of failing each course. As I often point out to my struggling students: “There are much cheaper ways not to attend a course. Just don’t sign up for it and you can ‘not attend’ it for free!”

I used to chalk up student failure to laziness and lack of academic preparation. While those can be contributing factors, they are not to blame in most cases. On the “lack of academic preparation” issue I would point out that schools have admissions requirements for the purpose of making sure that students who attend have a reasonable shot a completing a degree. If you have been admitted to a college then that college believes you have what it takes to succeed there!

Laziness, on the other hand, can overcome even the brightest mind! Generally, though, the students who fail in my courses I would not characterize as being lazy. Based on my observations the main reasons some students struggle in college are these:

• Addictions or Distractions
• Pyschological Factors
• Worldview Crises

Why Students Fail: Addictions/Distractions

According to Wikipedia (the source of all true wisdom and knowlege):

Classic hallmarks of addiction include: impaired control over substances/behavior, preoccupation with substance/behavior, continued use despite consequences, and denial. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Addiction)

When a student stays up all night long to play a new video game even though they have lots of homework, that doesn’t feel to me like laziness! Such a feat requires discipline, concentration, and devotion! The same student who displays such devotion to the video game will often sleep through my classes (present or not), fail to turn in homework, and perform poorly on exams. Looking back at the “hallmarks of addiction”, the student I just described seems to exhibit impaired control over behavior and to be preoccupied with a game despite the consequences. All we seem to be missing is denial. Well, if you want denial just talk to the student about their addiction:

Professor: “George, I missed you in class yesterday. Is everything okay?”

George: “Oh, yeah, I’m fine. The initial release of (insert game-of-choice here) was at midnight and me and my friends stayed up to play it. It was amazing! (insert loooong-episode-of-describing-specific-events-in-an-imaginary-world-filled-with-imaginary-beings-with-lots-of-imaginary-verbs-used-to-describe-actions here)”

(I should add at this point that there does not appear to be any denial … after all the student is freely admitting what they have done. Fear not. Denial is on its way!)

Professor: “I’m concerned that (insert game-of-choice here) is causing you to do poorly in this class.”

George:  “Aww. No, I don’t really play that much. This was just a one-time deal because the game was new. After a few days I’ll be back to normal.”

(There it is!)

In my experience, George will fail my course or, at least, perform way below his potential.  Also, in my experience, his absenteeism is much more likely to increase than it is to subside.  And my experience would dictate that his failure to turn in one assignment is much more likely to represent a pattern than to be an isolated occurrence!

I think the challenge here is that there is nothing inherently wrong with social media, video games, entertainment, or exercise. They are all socially acceptable and behaviors consistent with well-adjusted people. Nevertheless, George, displays the behaviors associated with an addiction. In such cases I think naming the addiction and treating it as an addiction are necessary steps to progress. Good luck getting George to agree with me on this.

Why Students Fail: Psychological Factors

Also, these factors are interrelated. A student does poorly on an exam … causing stress … causing “escaping” behaviors … causing more poor performance … causing more stress … causing depression … causing withdrawal … and so the depression become entrenched.

Why Students Fail: Worldview Crises

Yes, addictions, depression, over-commitment, and laziness can contribute significantly to a student’s demise. But from an instructor’s perspective, having a student fail a course, in most cases, represents a misappropriation of priorities. For a student to move away from home to live in an academy and to pay substantial amounts of money to do so is impressive. For that same student to fail a course is incongruent. Student failure implies that the vision that caused them to make such a breathtaking commitment in the first place has been lost. That is to say, when things get busy … when the pressure is on … when assignments are hard … when classes are boring … a student will tend to act according to their worldview.  The non-thinking goody-two-shoes doer will stay on task (if not for the right reasons). The student who lives for pleasure will follow the path of the most immediate pleasure. The student who responds to the loudest voice will be drawn to loud voices and then will do what they say. The student who doesn’t have an answer to the question “why am I here?” will drift.

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I used to think that if a student finished their first semester in good standing then they were set for a successful college career. (I used to think similarly about marriage!)  As it turns out a number of students make it through their first semester on the fumes of adrenaline and the good habits they built in high school with the help of parents.

Obviously, each student’s experience is different, but it seems go something like this:

• when to go to bed
• when to get up
• when, where and what, and how much to eat
• how to spend their free time
• how fast to drive
• … and a lot more!

One behavior that sometimes moves from the status of “mandatory” to “optional” is class attendance. Missing class in high school typically comes with immediate (negative) feedback. Missing class in college comes with … well … nothing … at least in the short term. As students begin to realize that they truly are free some of them exercise that freedom to their detriment. The ultimate cost of non-attendance is, of course, poor grades. Poor grades, can dampen enthusiasm for study, which will lead to increased emphasis on “other things”, which leads to poorer grades … and so the cycle continues resulting a dire case of second semester blues!

The Cure

So, what is the cure for the second semester blues? I think the cure depends on a variety of factors. Perhaps the root of the problem is the tendency we all have to do things that aren’t necessarily in our best interest. An ancient writer, Paul of Tarsus, expresses this idea eloquently:

 What I don’t understand about myself is that I decide one way, but then I act another, doing things I absolutely despise. So if I can’t be trusted to figure out what is best for myself and then do it, it becomes obvious that God’s command is necessary. (The Bible, Romans 7:15-16, “The Message” Translation)

Another aspect of the cure may involve fleshing out one’s worldview.For more on the importance of your worldview, visit my post on “Why Students Fail” Some students are so eager to enjoy their new found freedom, they fail to ask important questions such as:

• “Why am I here?” (in college, in life)
• “When college is over, what do I want to have accomplished?”
• “When my life is over, what do I want to have accomplished?”
• “What is the point of it all?”

Final Thoughts

If you happen to be a student (in any semester) who is struggling, let me encourage you to take some time to evaluate why you came to college in the first place. If your goal is to have a good time, let me assure there are much cheaper and easier ways to have a good time! On the other hand, if you are studying for a purpose, take time to reflect on that purpose. And if you need help to get out of a hole, don’t let pride keep you from getting the help you need.

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Rex Fleming’s funeral is today. His life and death have touched many. For me it has brought back fond memories of the time I was able to spend with Tom Kim before his death. What follows is a personal remembrance I wrote about Tom. Prior to this posting I had only shared this with a handful of people.  I hope that this posting will serve to prolong Tom’s legacy and to remind us all that we are only passing through.

Tom Kim

Tom Kim

Tom Kim had lived a lot of life by the time we became acquainted. Since his arrival in the U.S. as a young man, he had earned various degrees culminating with a Ph.D. in Economics. This was followed by a full-blown academic career ranging from achieving a rank of full professor at Texas Tech University before moving on to serve as president of McMurry University for over 20 years. He couldn’t bear an idle retirement and so continued in academia as a faculty member, first for Abilene Christian University and then for Hardin-Simmons University.

Meeting Tom Kim

I first met Tom at a “new faculty party” for the college of business at Hardin-Simmons. Tom loved to recount the circumstances of our meeting. As a new faculty member, I was meeting many of my colleagues for the first time. Tom introduced himself to me and upon hearing that my discipline was computer science, announced that I should plan to handle any regular computer problems myself, but that he would be happy to take care of the especially difficult problems for me! The part of the story that Tom never repeated, though, is that Charles Walts overheard our exchange and vociferously assured me that Tom would be no help at all with my computer problems!

We had a good laugh, but the true humor of that exchange was revealed when Tom repeatedly called me into his office when he needed help on his computer! As our friendship grew I began to announce, prior to providing “computer help”, that I charged $150 per hour for my services. Over the years Tom developed a number of comebacks for my announcements. His most successful was that he was charging me an equivalent amount for tidbits of Abilene news that he provided on occasion.

The “Book Club”

Other than occasional visits to Tom’s office to answer computer questions I had little interaction with Tom during my first year at Hardin-Simmons. It was at about that time I made a decision that turned out to be life-changing. I had begun reading a book and decided that I would benefit from hearing a wise economist’s viewpoint on the material. In a precocious move, I visited Tom’s office and asked if he would be willing to read a book and meet with me once a week to discuss it. I will forever remember Tom’s response because he did not give me an immediate answer. Instead he asked about the book and then told me he needed time to think about his answer.

The next day, to my relief, Tom agreed and we began meeting. It was no surprise that our discussions encompassed far more than our reading material and a friendship ensued. Before we had finished our book Tom suggested that we choose another book to start as soon as we had finished the first one. After completing several books, Tom began to dub our meetings the “Book Club.”

The Book Club meetings continued weekly up until shortly before his death and evolved over time. One of the more dramatic changes was the admittance of Mike Monhollon into the Book Club. The extension of membership to Mike was preceded by much deliberation on the part of Tom. He was hopeful that Mike would be a dedicated and worthy member, but didn’t want to ruin a good thing! Part of the cost of membership to Mike was that he had to agree to eat Thai food each week. Of this agreement, Mike was reminded often!

Another tangential development of the Book Club was that when Mike was unable to attend (often as a result of his deanly duties), Tom and I would still meet–but not discuss the book. Over time, we began to share many meals that were not related to the Club, but were just two friends enjoying Thai food together.

Personal Lessons

I learned many things about Tom during our lunches. One fact that became quickly evident was Tom’s devotion to his family. Whether speaking of his faithful wife, his over-achieving siblings, his highly successful children, or his beloved grandchildren, Tom was eager to discuss his family. His grandchildren, in particular, were a favorite conversation piece.

Tom also, on occasion, gave insights into the profession of collegiate academia and helped me understand some of its mysterious workings … though, much remains a mystery to me. During our lunches I learned small parts of his upbringing. Of particular interest was that Tom grew up in China as a result of the Japanese occupation of Korea. His father was a Korean patriot who help maintain a provisional Korean government in revolution against the Japanese occupiers. From that background grew a collection of siblings who seized life by the horns and used education to provide security for themselves and their families.

Lessons from Cleaning an Office

Another opportunity to learn more about this great man came with an assignment he gave me shortly before his death. Due to ill health, Tom had decided to forgo teaching and asked me to clean out his office. One of the first insights I gained from this experience was that Tom didn’t throw anything away! In a similar vein, he preferred to use graph paper for note-taking and had squirreled away a stack of graph paper tablets well over 2 feet tall. For each tablet there must have been 3 or 4 binder clips that were recovered as well. There was no shortage of red pens, either! I’m no psychologist, but I suspect the tendency to keep so many supplies on hand was a natural reaction to the stress his family must have endured living as refugees in Shanghai, China.

On a less trivial note I learned that Tom was a giver and receiver of thank you notes. I had on one or two occasions been the recipient of one of his very gracious, hand-written thank you notes. I found that he kept copies of many notes he had written over the years. I also learned that he had been, at least once, the recipient of the “Outstanding Citizen of Abilene Award”. It was interesting that one of his hand-written notes was to congratulate an individual for receiving the same award.

As I sorted through papers and books, there was evidence of an economist who had been highly active in his profession. There were a number of published articles, his own text book on the mathematics of economics, and notes from aspiring academics who he mentored.

More prominent than his professional record was an obvious devotion to teaching. As I sorted through folder after folder of class notes, it became clear that Tom had re-written notes from one semester to the next. Each notebook was filled with hand-written notes, graphs, and copies of current articles printed from the Internet. Many of his hand-drawn graphs were copied onto transparencies for viewing on an overhead projector. I assume that his preference for transparencies over presentation software was related to the fact that my hourly consulting rate was so high.

Although I tried to be careful not to read any confidential material I would sometimes catch glimpses of various items in my attempt to decide whether they should be kept, shredded, or recycled. The only comment from student evaluations that I read said this:

That’s an assessment to which I aspire, though I suspect it will take more than 60 years of teaching for me to arrive!

Questions to Ask

After I finished the project of sorting through Tom’s office, I took a couple of boxes of “high priority” items to his house along with lunch that my wife brought in from Szechuan Chinese Restaurant. I didn’t realize that would be the last time I would see him in person. The process of sorting Tom’s papers caused me to do a lot of thinking about what a person might find if they cleaned out my own office. I suppose the complementary question is

I’m still working on answers to those questions. In the mean time I’m left with a hole where Tom used to be and am getting a glimpse of of how one can drift over time from hanging dearly on to life to a place where the draw of those who have passed before makes moving on a natural next step. One thing I admire about Tom is that he was learning, growing, and making friends up until his death. He was in his mid- to late- seventies when we first met. He had no shortage of friends when I came into his life and yet he gave me access to his rich history and wisdom.

Although I miss Tom I’m thankful for his investment in me. I hope I will be able to emulate much of his life and that when mine is done we’ll together enjoy some delicious Thai cuisine and recount the story of how we met.

Terry Sergeant
(orginally penned on 26 Mar 2012)

—Colton Burpo to Harold on his death bed in Heaven is For Real

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