Under pressure

I distinctly remember writing about the south as a calm, laid-black kind of place. Well, I think I may revise or adjust that opinion to reflect the lives of my students at the end of the semester.
I never thought I would see a 22-year old cry because they got a C in a class. Or hear a student beg for extra assignments so they could push their grade from a B to an A. Or see a student completely lose it, and yell and cuss over a D. But unfortunately, I have seen it all, and all just in the short span of a few days.

I have always known, thanks to several years of first-hand experience, that American students are under a lot more pressure than their European counterparts. And this is not just because the semesters in the US are a lot shorter. While in Europe, students seem to be mainly concerned with doing the bare minimum, American students have to worry about the honor roll, the dean’s list, GPAs, SATs, GREs, regents’ tests, and building a resume filled with useful extracurricular activities.
This enormous amount of pressure can get overwhelming for both students and instructors. Each student has their own story, some have to graduate or “walk” this semester, and thus have to pass all their classes, others need to maintain a certain GPA for their scholarship, others want to please their parents, and still others simply want to get that A. Some manage to achieve all these things, but some don’t, and that’s when the pressure becomes almost too much. I have lost count of how many students have sat in my office this week, distraught and disappointed, or upset and defiant, pleading for just one more chance, something which, in most cases, was simply impossible.
And this is when all those southern niceties finally disappear. It’s as though when things really matter, and crunch time is here, these platitudes only stand in the way of success. There are no more “how are you’s”, no more roundabout ways of asking what you want. Students will barge in, slam your door shut, and usually start with something like “Why did you give a(n) B/C/D/F”. There are no more sweet smiles and platitudes; instead there is raw emotion (albeit behind a closed door). Students don’t bother hiding behind politeness or making false promises to please you; they finally give it to you as they see it. At times all this emotion can get a little overwhelming. But all in all it helps to put an actual face on people who are usually too nice and too good to be true. And as I tell all my students, I wish they had been this adamant at the beginning of the semester, when it still could have made a difference. And you know what? I think some of them may have actually caught on to what I was saying.

So in spite of the pressure cooker that is these last few days of school, and in spite of the fact that I will breathe a big sigh of relief when all of this craziness is over, it is somehow, also very refreshing.