One of my freshmen students fired off two emails today, only to show up at my office door a half hour later with dad to complain that the student had received a B+ in a course I had taught. First semester in college and this student is obsessing over a B+. Of course, the fact that the same student had to miss the last three weeks of classes due to a family trip (totally worthwhile one, I might add but irrelevant here) was dismissed. I was unreasonable, manipulative, and since grading essays on learning is totally subjective, clearly I had FAILED THIS STUDENT. The same student who could have attended a prestigious school instead of mine, etc. This was all from dad, by the way. The student just sat there and let daddy work his lawyer magic. Or not.
Wow- life is tragic isn't it? I am sure any errant reader of this blog feels the pain of the student and can easily see how important a grade in a first semester course is to one's entire life. Far more important than war, disease, devastating accidents, say.
Now look at Long Island Newsday of December 22nd in which riders of the LIRR on early Sunday morning in the midst of the worst blizzard to hit Long Island in decades were hysterical because their train was stopped and they were stuck in the snow for hours. OK, not pleasant to be sure but do you suppose that anyone noticed it was SNOWING A BLIZZARD outside?
We seem to have a modern disease in which the world revolves around us and our desires. Everyone and everything (including the freezing point of water, I suppose) should recognize that we are important, that we deserve to get whatever we want because we, well, want it and want it now.
I sympathize with the people on the train but to break open a window (because it was too cold in the train??) and to abuse the conductors who may not really know much more than the passengers about when help would arrive just smacks of hubris and foolishness. Yes, it is awful but band together and deal with it. And to abuse a faculty member after your first semester at college because you didn't get straight A's echos our notion that the world must bend itself to our desires. Why not discuss your grades calmly and with a willingness to learn? Gosh, maybe the student didn't do quite as well as they thought? Could we talk about it before threatening and insulting me?
Maybe we all just need to recognize that the universe does not revolve around us and our petty wants? Conductors might be a bit surly and faculty who are accused of unfairness do tend to get annoyed but where is our communal sense of reality, of responsibility and recognition of the world as it is? Most of all, with what graces are we blest and indeed lucky?
I do recall being a senior in college and received a paper back all marked up with red. I was devastated. But I also wondered what I had done wrong and how I had gotten this far without a teacher helping me improve. I was the fault as mostly mine. Not that I was happy, mind you. I approached my professor with a certain degree of hysteria, I am sure, but also respectful and willing to do what I could to improve. Hmm...
