(You notice how I'm leaving ambiguous whether it's me or the students who's whining and moaning? That's cleverness!)
So a student came in yesterday to see me. He admitted right up front that he'd missed a third of the classes this semester, and he said that he hoped that it was all right. Or rather, he hoped that I wasn't "going to be super-mean on your attendance policy." By "super-mean" I think he meant enforce it at all. When I said that it depended a bit on why he'd missed the classes he said "I'm not going to lie to you -- some of the time it was laziness, but some of the time it was because I had a really hard class right after yours, so I had to skip yours to study for the other one."
This is, by the way, not an answer that will endear you to a teacher.
When I said that I wouldn't automatically fail him, as my policy says I would, and rather would grade his work as it was, he asked what grade he was likely to get. I said that he might get a C. He said he was really hoping for a B or even an A. I ask you -- what sort of person thinks they deserve an A for showing up 66% of the time? In a class with an attendance policy?
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3 comments:
I love student stories.
Mine isn't quite as galling, but I had an SAT student ask me if I "like read for fun, or something" when the context I gave him for the word tempestuous was that in the Shakespeare play the Tempest, they're lost at sea in a storm, or tempest (if you will). It's not like I was referencing Cymbeline. The Tempest is a fairly well known play. In fact my mom was telling the story to someone, and their immediate reaction was "like the play".
I know I am late getting in on the action, but I got an A in a class I showed up for about 50% of the time. and probably openly napped in the class while i was there another 20% of the time. I got away with i because I was dating the teachers daughter and I think she may have changed my grade in her dad's grade book.
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