My love-hate relationship with college students

I am a college lecturer, so my income is derived from college students. In general, I enjoy working with them. Teaching also provides me with the excuse to stay on top of the reading that I need to do for my profession and it also forces me to read outside my general area of expertise. For the most part, they are interesting, endlessly entertaining (some more than others) and they do provide hope.

But I absolutely hate getting on the T when the college students are there. I would rather work late than get on the E-line any time between 5 - 7 pm on a Friday. Or a Thursday. or a Tuesday. Or any day of the week.

Most of the freshman will enter the Spring semester still not understanding the rules of the system. They will block the doors. They will refuse to move into the car where there is plenty of room. They will keep wearing their backpacks instead of taking them off and putting them on the floor so that people can actually pass by them to get to the open space in the middle of the train that they refuse to occupy.

When you work with college students, you understand the whole issue of prolonged adolescence. You know that there are 20 year olds that are still trying to figure out who they are. They are still very ego-centric. That's fine. But it sucks to share space with a group of 19 and 20 year olds who are trying out a variety of obnoxious personalities in an effort to one-up each other.

So, while I'm teaching, I put my best effort in developing their capacity to think for themselves, to understand the role of history and context in the way things are today, in providing some of them with opportunities for advancement, and in fostering a sense of collective responsibility. But I am beginning to understand why many professors, even the ones who rail on about environmental sustainability, drive home.