On Mediocrity By Michael W. Gos Kingsville, Texas
I
t was just another one
of those professional conferences, this time at Texas A&MKingsville. You may know the type of event I’m talking about—an activity that may look good on your resume but is absolutely worthless in terms of garnering something you will ever use on the job. But we go anyway because of optics; it looks good. For the entire day, the discussion seemed to be centered around taking care of those students who find themselves at the bottom of their college classes: the underprepared, those in remedial classes, those who many people feel don’t belong in college at all. I would certainly understand this emphasis if it were a conference about developmental education, but this was about teaching all types of writing in college (composition, technical and business writing). I expected a wider discussion. When it wasn’t happening, I spoke up.
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Texas A&M-Kingsville
I pointed out that the discussion these last two days had been all about the developmental student, but I wanted to know what we could do for our best students, the ones who come well prepared and with a real desire to succeed. What happens to those who are outstanding and have the potential for greatness? I got a near unanimous reply from my fellow conferees. The more magnanimous said these students are able to take care of themselves and don’t need our attention. However, I was surprised to learn that a far
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greater number of those in the room went so far as to say the presence of these higher end students is problematic, an actual obstacle to learning. They often perform in ways that discourage the “students we most need to help.“ This isn’t the first time I had found myself at odds with others in my discipline. In fact, we disagree on almost everything. But for some reason, this one really troubled me. I tend to think that seeing your classmates performing well would be an incentive to work harder.
When you see that it can be done, you are motivated to emulate that success. How is it that the presence of those who should be role models in the classroom is discouraging to learning?
Over the last few years, we have evolved into a society that not only accepts, but actually valorizes and encourages mediocrity. It has become the norm; mediocrity is what is expected, even demanded. This
