Professors versus Students: The expanding “Generation Gap” between today’s elder instructors and the prospective Class of 2015 is festering into a very much awkward relationship between two groups of people with very different backgrounds and childhoods. Some more naïve or sarcastic youth in today’s society may say that the ‘90s children who are now today’s students played with Tickle-Me-Elmo and the ‘60s children who are now today’s professors played with spoons. The ‘90s generation grew up with the full experience of an ever-rising pinnacle of technology and the ‘60s generation grew up with a variety of dusty spoons. This comparison presents some problems already, namely the problems of misunderstanding and miscommunication.
Communication bridges gaps. Today’s professors grew up learning the art of writing and sending letters. Nowadays, students are using the Internet to “connect” with others. But are they truly connected? The United States Postal Service is going bankrupt because of this new era of connectivity – something that is truly shocking to the elder members of our nation. It has never been easier for students to communicate with other students. However, is the elder generation being left behind, unable to keep up with today’s fast-paced information-run society?
Up until recently, taking a college course online was unheard of. But now students may register for an online class at many a university. In such courses, students may not ever make face-to-face contact with instructors. In such a passive environment, is academic growth truly being promoted? Certainly, the online program is intended to provide for making things more “convenient” for both student and professor, but how rigorously is the student being tested if the class they are taking is merely an open tab on their Internet browser while they are primarily focused on watching a video on YouTube in their pajamas eating cheese curls? It seems that education is gradually on its way to becoming something of a necessary hobby. Are students and professors both okay with this?
Interaction these days simply is not as intimate. Back in the day, universities were not being constantly challenged to accommodate more and more new students every year. Hence, students were students and not statistics, a series of receipts, or government funding opportunities. With the changing times, many professors no doubt feel overwhelmed by having to teach well over 400 students per class. Therefore, it is nearly impossible for an average professor to make personal connections with each and every student that they have in their classes. This pushes the student and the professor further apart – there is less communication between the two, less discussion, and less understanding of their mutual thoughts and feelings. Students are simply numbers and professors simply instructors. In today’s instant-gratification lifestyle, the ability for professors to see the occupied seats as individual people becomes blurred, and vice versa. There are universities yet that dare to cross this line, to connect the dots in hopes for universal acceptance. But the simple fact is that professors and students are rapidly becoming of black and white comparisons, rather than being united in the grey area of humanity.
Denotatively speaking, a professor is a “lecturer or teacher in a field of learning”. In those terms denotative terms, one might as well hand professors their money and let them lecture. But a dictionary will not provide both groups fulfillment of their feelings, hopes, and aspirations of teaching and being taught. A generation gap should not divide us into students and professors. We are all one thing, and that we are both human.
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