I'm at a small rural community college. Fall 2012 was the most challenging semester I've had. The students were impossible to motivate for any length of time. I've had to involve the college's counselors who have made calls to parents, had meetings with them. The parent meetings with admissions counselors is the only thing that's had any noticeable effect. It's terrible. It continues to be a challenge to motivate this group. It can't go on like this.
I upvoted you, but I really have to ask why you can't just fail those students who aren't motivated to study or work for their grades. I assume that the students you are teaching are over the age of 18 and are paying tuition to attend your college. They're adults and should be treated as such.
>I really have to ask why you can't just fail those students
Who says they didn't fail? I didn't get into detail. For one thing, I don't want students to fail. Another thing, it is stressful to have more than half your class fail, even for a self-righteous ass like myself. Here are the grades from my freshman (Fall 2012) course, (IIRC):
A, 1 < Non-traditional student, ex-convict, age 30-ish.
They're probably not paying that tuition now. They will eventually though, and at that time they may not think they got a very good deal for all their loans.
If school loans disappeared tomorrow then the situation GP describes would as well. Of course, that might coincide with the disappearance of that entire community college.
