My college classes are heading towards the final third of the term. As you might imagine, many students are starting to nervously wonder about their grades. Why does it take this arriving finality of the term to awaken concern? I suppose that is a question for another post on another day, but the concern is obvious for many of them.
Some of them wisely came to me about a month ago as we headed towards midterms. As we spoke, different students in different classes, the most obvious issue for the majority was not their performance in a specific assessment, but rather the simple failure to complete a task. That’s right–overall, the students who show up can easily pass my class (regardless of what you may read on a site like ratemyprofessor). The real impact to the grade comes in missing the details.
Each semester, I, along with my peers, take the time to construct a syllabus that lays out the coming work and when it will be due. Each semester, I find myself amazed at how many students simply fail to complete tasks. The deadline comes and goes and, well, no work is ever completed.
I was speaking with a peer about this recently, and he was lamenting about how so many in his classes aren’t doing the work. He said that he even goes so far as to reach out to them in an effort to provide a second chance, and even then, students just let the warning go unheeded and take the 0. I told him that I couldn’t tell if students simply didn’t care or if they could not comprehend the impact to their standing in the class.
What about you? In your life, how are you doing with the details? Are you paying attention? Do you get your bills paid on time? Keep your clothes clean? Return phone calls or emails? Show up to appointments on time? Are you aware of the details that are expected of you?
I spoke recently to a group and once again reminded them of the truth that whatever is rare is what culture declares to be valuable. Centuries ago, it was salt. Yep, that white stuff that we have in abundance was the cause of many wars in centuries long ago because without salt, no food could be preserved. You know what is rare today? The old values, including the focus to pay attention to details. You want to be the person who gets the raise, or perhaps more importantly is never laid off or fired, then become the valuable one by being rare.
Don’t miss the details.