Friday, February 16, 2007
people who expect too much
I have just spent an hour responding to a request from one of my students.
She is a woman who was enrolled in my course last semester. She managed to attend only 10/32 hours of class.
When she did show up it would often be in the last 5 minutes of a 4-hour class. She had her infant daughter with her on 2 occasions. On the one hand, she is clearly a very bright woman but on the other hand her life is entirely unmanageable.
In part, due to missing so much class time she turned in a project for the course that was very inferior.
I gave her an F for the course.
When I looked at the people registered for the same course this semester, I discovered that she was on my roster again.
The day before the semester began I received an e-mail from her saying that she was re-taking the course to get a better grade but that she would be missing the first 2 classes because she was out of town on "family business". As it turned out, she has already missed the first 4 classes of the new semester.
Yesterday I received another e-mail from her asking if "since I have already attended your class, can I take the course on-line and aim or at least a C?". This is NOT an online course and furthermore, she barely attended the class the last time. I will have to prepare special materials for her and accept e-mail assignments. Also, if she misses class, it's unlikely that she will have adequate notes to study for the final. It is possible to obtain the lecture information by reading the textbooks but I've noticed that students seldom do as well on exams if they rely strictly on their own reading.
She is asking me to compromise my academic standards so she can pass the course. She is also asking me to do a substantial amount of extra work just for her. I've already spent an extra hour of my time just responding to her e-mail. I don't get paid for this!
She is a woman who was enrolled in my course last semester. She managed to attend only 10/32 hours of class.
When she did show up it would often be in the last 5 minutes of a 4-hour class. She had her infant daughter with her on 2 occasions. On the one hand, she is clearly a very bright woman but on the other hand her life is entirely unmanageable.
In part, due to missing so much class time she turned in a project for the course that was very inferior.
I gave her an F for the course.
When I looked at the people registered for the same course this semester, I discovered that she was on my roster again.
The day before the semester began I received an e-mail from her saying that she was re-taking the course to get a better grade but that she would be missing the first 2 classes because she was out of town on "family business". As it turned out, she has already missed the first 4 classes of the new semester.
Yesterday I received another e-mail from her asking if "since I have already attended your class, can I take the course on-line and aim or at least a C?". This is NOT an online course and furthermore, she barely attended the class the last time. I will have to prepare special materials for her and accept e-mail assignments. Also, if she misses class, it's unlikely that she will have adequate notes to study for the final. It is possible to obtain the lecture information by reading the textbooks but I've noticed that students seldom do as well on exams if they rely strictly on their own reading.
She is asking me to compromise my academic standards so she can pass the course. She is also asking me to do a substantial amount of extra work just for her. I've already spent an extra hour of my time just responding to her e-mail. I don't get paid for this!
# posted by blue-foot Sue @ 10:55 AM 
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