Read everything
Before each semester begins, I ask parents and families for your help in reinforcing an important message we want students to hear: read everything.
Your students get a lot of emails or other documents, and I get it, it is not always fun to slog through them. But it is incredibly important.
Students need to read the syllabus for each of their classes. This means reading from start to finish, all the details. The syllabus is like a contract showing what is expected, when assignments are due, how things get graded, etc.
Students must read every email they get from Wake Forest – whether that is from a faculty member or an administrator, or it is the WFU Should Know weekly enewsletter that goes to students on Thursday afternoons. Email is how administrative and academic processes will be communicated to students.
In reading everything, they need to look for action items. Are there requirements? Due dates? Deadlines? Fees if you do (or do not) do something?
Students should also get in the habit of reading the fine print. Even (or maybe especially) when the email or document is long. And if something does not make sense or is unclear, they must ask the sender for clarification right then and there.
The bottom line is students will be held accountable for the contents of emails, syllabi, or other communication, whether they have read them or not.
And if we play the long game for a second, our Deacs will leave us at some point and go on to jobs, graduate or professional schools, etc. and their bosses or faculty will expect them to be disciplined and read the messages they send them. Now is the time to start building that skill. (Otherwise, one could be at a competitive disadvantage on the first job, and no one wants that!)
Daily Deacdom, you can help here. As your Deacs prepare to head back to campus, please stress to them the importance of reading everything. And if a time comes when your Deac doesn’t read their emails/details and faces some sort of consequence, hold them accountable and let them experience this as a learning moment. Better for them to learn a mildly painful lesson now at college, when the stakes are low, than to make a serious misstep with their first boss/job out of college. In this way, experience can be the best teacher.