Disempowered students

I just got back from teaching two classes (first years). In one of them, I was very tempted to ask two students to stay back at the end of the hour and tell them that (a) they were my weakest students, and (b) they were not doing the reading and that I was not going to take this crap. I would have done so nicely, in the understanding that they are not "weak students" per se, but that they are allowing themselves to fall behind.

I'm worried about their "can't do" attitude. I feel like I need to reinforce the two girls in some way: it is my duty to "catch them" now. I think I can do that in a way that is insightful and sensitive but I don't quite dare to. The likely result of my inaction is that they might carry that disempowered attitude into the rest of their studies, and I won't tolerate disempowererd students on my course (especially not girls). They're my kids, they're brilliant and none of them does poorly at university.

My students are usually full of ambition and idealism. They shine out like the glorious young things that they are. In class, they share their dreams, their hopes, the crackpot theories they've been making up while in the shower and this is wonderful. Their essays are inventive and a joy to read. I love to challenge them, I would cut off pieces of paper with outlandish statements on them, give these out randomly and "force" them to argue for that statement with no preparation, to make sure they're always sitting on the edge. It works really well, the class is always full of laughter but they work bloody hard.

I pretty much demand that they stay on top of the material and warn them that if they don't, the consequences will be very dire in their second and third year. By then, they won't be able to catch up. I warn them all the time and I do this because I also teach finalists who have fallen behind, don't know what Neoliberalism is and have no confidence in their own ability to succeed.

In class, most of them play along. I'm not asking them to know everything, I'm asking them to try, to jump in the deep end and yes, make fools of themselves! Hell, I make a fool of myself in front of them sometimes and they sure love to point that out! I'm really just coaching them, they're the ones coming up with the ideas.

They're great students, they're doing amazingly well so far and I make sure they know that. I'm proud of them: they're going to do better than the rest of their cohort, and they're going to leave university happy, empowered, and as shiny as the day they first came in. I'm also proud of the way our classes work. But I do wish I'd asked the two girls to stay behind. I won't have any disempowered students on my team. Sorry girls, I just don't do disempowered.