Although Parsons’ message may be a hard pill for students to swallow, I strongly believe it is important for students to hear. The blunt and insensitive attitude he portrays is not to be rude but to exude seriousness. College is not a game and first year students better prepare. Parsons’ mocks naysayers by saying, “we should not foolishly expect them to listen to us, but instead cater to their conditioned craving for constant stimulation.” This statement he completely disagrees with. Freshman students need to adapt to university and its old school ways. As a first-year student I don’t have an issue with his cutthroat, straight to the point approach. I don’t think the students should take it personally. And to be fair, college is very different from high school.
Professors are not “babysitters” like high school teachers. Parsons’ flaunts the fact that he “gets paid the same whether you get an “F” or an “A.” He doesn’t make conference calls to your parents and he doesn’t document tutorials. Because he doesn’t do these things, it gives students endless opportunities to be responsible of their own education and success. I know that for me his attitude is only motivation for me to be more responsible and independent.
Students must adjust to the old-fashioned way of learning, which is lecturing. And your question might be, “what ever happened to adapting?” Well, you can’t force anyone to adapt and apparently Parsons believes lecturing is the most efficient way of teaching. So, students are going to have to put down their devices and put their focus on and know that sometimes you’re just not always going to have things your way. Throughout life not everything is going to be exactly how you like but you still have to comply. When I was younger, I learned something called “playing the game.” You have to “play the game” to get what you want. In this case, you have to humble yourself and get through old-fashioned lectures to pass the course and get a degree. This newfound responsibility is only preparing students for life. Even though students may see Parsons’ rant rude now, they will one day understand. You’ll have to grow up and get things on your own whether you like it or not.