With Great Responsibility Comes Great Power

Uncle Ben's well worn quote from Spider-Man is certainly true. When you have the ability to do great things you have the responsibility to do those things for the betterment of other people's lives. We are given out talents and abilities so that we can use them for the benefit of our neighbor, that is true. However, I would like to suggest that someone who takes on a great deal of responsibility ends up achieving a great deal of power through their hard work and dedication.

I don't know if I've mentioned this already in a previous post, but I'm a math tutor at my University. In the spring I worked eight hours a week in the tutoring center helping drop-in students who needed assistance, and this semester in addition to working in the tutoring center I'm also working as an assistant for two different math classes as their own personal tutor. Working my job has helped to give me an interesting glimpse into different kinds of students and the way other people approach their problems.

On one end you have the people who might be struggling but will bust their butts and do everything they possibly can to improve and get a passing grade. It may have been ten years since they last took a math class but they will come to the tutoring center for hours a day multiple days a week. They will visit their professor's office hours, they'll watch math videos online, and they'll do dozens upon dozens of practice problems in order to try and make it through a class that is giving them a ton of trouble. These people understand that success in the class depends on them and how much effort and work they put into it.

On the other end you have the people that might come to the tutoring center but they come expecting answers and to complain about their professor for an hour in hopes that you will agree with them and solidify their idea that their F is a result of their prof's bad teaching and not their laziness or lack of ability. These people want to pass without any effort, they want their degree and grades handed to them on a silver platter, and expect everyone else to pull the weight for them. They believe that they have the right to success and that they shouldn't have to lift a finger get it. They will spend hours upon hours just complaining about their professors' accents, speed, examples, and attitude but they just don't have the time to handle the mountainous load of work they've been given. When they ask for your help they are really asking for an answer to their question and don't have any interest in actually learning how to solve the problem.

I love my job because of the first group, and it drives me nuts because of the second group.

The people in the first group understand responsibility and duty and even in the face of probable failure they will keep going and keep trying because they understand that they will only move forward by their own might and ability. The second group of people, when faced with a failing grade, typically seem to try even less and just complain even more as if they expect their whining and moaning to get the job done. Well, news flash. It won't.

This semester I am  helping with a College Algebra class and a Pre-Algebra class for people who totally bombed the entrance test. They are the two lowest math classes on campus and the people taking them are either A) people who struggle with math so mightily it is hard to even grasp and B) people who care so little that it doesn't matter what the content of the class is they won't succeed because they don't care. Dealing with these classes has been a really amazing, if painful, eye opener.

My philosophy last spring and over the summer (when I was still tutoring each week in the center for summer classes) has been that anyone can make it over the wall and find the solution eventually and I put a lot of the responsibility for their understanding in my ability to teach them. Well, call me jaded and cynical, but I've come to the conclusion that there are people you can't teach. My dear matriarch always says "You can't fix stupid." Well, let me adjust that to "You can't teach lazy."

In the college algebra class I am helping with, I have hour long "mini-classes" on Fridays each week that people can come to if they are having trouble with the concepts covered in class or struggling with homework. Essentially they are private tutoring sessions available only for that class. The first couple of weeks I didn't really expect anyone to come (and I was right) because all of that is mostly review of previous courses, but a week and a half ago they took their first quiz and the class average was well below a passing grade. Most of the class completely bombed it and it became pretty clear that people were not understanding the material. Well, there is an exam next Monday and to help prepare for the exam I had an additional mini-class this week in the evening so that people would have yet another opportunity to come and get help. Even after seeing their incredibly low grades on the quiz and even with a major test coming up in less than a week now... no one came.

Didn't really hurt me. I still get paid whether or not they show, but I was really frustrated because I want to help these students. I want them to succeed and I'd love to see 100% of the class pass. Well, that's not going to happen. Why? Because they don't care enough. They will not take responsibility, or ownership, of their situation and actually strive toward success. Each week they have at least two online graded exercises they are supposed to complete and close to half the class hasn't even completed one of them yet. Two people, as of Monday, hadn't even signed up for the program yet and we are into week four now. They don't care, they won't put forth the effort and so I can't help them and they are going to fail.

All of college, and really all of life, is about learning to take responsibility for your own actions, choices, and success. What you achieve and how far you go is going to be directly proportional to how much effort you put in. Sure, there people who have greater obstacles than others and there are people who get smooth sailing, but not matter the variables the output of a function is going to depend on what the input is. You might have some kind of a handicap or obstacle that must be overcome, but it is up to you to overcome it. The responsibility to succeed lies in your hands.

Our country doesn't really seem to get that these days. We get away with far too much without actually working for it (this coming from the almost 19 year old living in his parent's basement...), but true success, at least from an earthly prospective, can only come from taking responsibility for your own life.

Speaking from experience, the amount of pleasure and reward that comes from accomplishing something for yourself far exceeds anything that can come from having another person do the heavy lifting. I just very recently got my driver's license and I feel significantly better now that I know driving me to and from work and classes is no longer a burden my parents have to deal with. True, they were happy to do it for me and were willing to make that sacrifice because they love me, but it was time I took that particular aspect of my life into my own hands and started being responsible for getting myself to and fro. Yes, it is a responsibility and paying for gas isn't going to be fun, but I take on that responsibility gladly because I feel like I'm one step closer to actually having the right to calling myself a responsible adult.

If you always let others do things for you than eventually you will be numbed to personal satisfaction so much you can't appreciate a hard days work anymore, but there is something really amazing about having the power to meet your own needs. That kind of a power only comes from taking on responsibility and accepting all the work that goes with it.

In talking with  my boss, Captain Kirk, who teaches the College Algebra class I am helping with, we've discussed this topic a lot and how it is all about taking ownership of your college experience, or life, in general. Your success or failure is in your hand. When you put in the work you own the reward. It is a principle this country was founded on and it is a principle that is really woven into reality itself. A worker is deserving of his wages and a diligent student is worthy of their A. My English professor first semester gave me an A on a paper she thought was probably worth a B because it made the different between me getting a B- and a B+ in the class and she told me that, even though  my writing wasn't spectacular, I had put a lot of effort into the class over the semester and had showed remarkable progress as a result. They class kicked my butt a number of times and I got a D- on my first paper because I didn't know how to write for an academic audience worth squat. In her mind though, the effort I had displayed, the times I had visited her office, and the emailed questions I had sent her were enough to earn that bump up in my grade. If you take ownership of your life and your work there are real rewards to be had whether they come in the form of self satisfaction, the gratitude of others, or a higher grade.

Theologically speaking the whole pull yourself up by your own bootstraps mentality it all work righteousness and false pride, but even within the Christian faith you cannot live a life of wanton sin and gluttony and expect that all your willful sins will be mopped up and taken care of. It is true that Christ died upon the cross for all people and all sins, regardless of how grievous, and it is also true that without the Holy Spirit we cannot by our own reason or strength believe in the Heavenly Father and come to him, but when given the forgiveness of the death upon the cross and faith through the Holy Spirit we should and are supposed to use our new found faith and freedom for the benefit of other people and do good works for the sake of our neighbor. Even in Christianity where forgiveness is so central to everything you don't get a clear ticket to do whatever you want and expect everyone else to pick up the slack.

I love to help the students that are struggling mightily but want to succeed because my efforts to help them have visible worth. When the light bulb finally comes on and the message finally clicks and sinks in I cannot help but beam with pride at my tutee's accomplishment, but the person coming asking me to solve their homework for them frustrates me to no end.

Your failure or success depends on you. Objects at rest require a push to get them moving, and only you are capable of getting the ball rolling. The next time you feel like insulting your professor or boss suck it up and figure out how to get the problem solved. Other people have been in worse situations than you and have managed to make it through.

You have the opportunity to succeed, but you have to earn it first. Now go for it.

Pax