... and I have yet to give a final.
I hate finals week in this country. I don’t love it in the US, but I hate it here. Students get a free education so long as they attend class. Five absences and they get booted. Four is OK. Ann is lucky in that her college (we both work at the same university) has a person who plays gatekeeper for excuses. In my college each instructor gets to decide whether or not to count an absence.
In the fall of 2008 my students took advantage of me relentlessly. It seemed 80% of my class was constantly sick, “in hospital”, and a stunning number of grandparents died (supposedly).
Since then here’s what I told my classes: “I will forgive two absences for anyone. After that you get four allowed absences. When you hit seven you are done, period. No family emergency/aunt dying or hospital visit will matter.”
Six absences means missing 3 weeks of class. I don’t think I missed six classes in all of my undergraduate career, let alone in one class.
Well, out of 160 students this semester 10 were dropped for attendance and now the groveling has begun. I was on campus for only a few minutes when I was surrounded by students. Each had great excuses for their absences.
After listening for a while I said, “I have no power to change this.” That didn’t get through and eventually I had to walk away.
Later a male student called me. I don’t give out my number and the IPhone is a new number. Even the department secretary doesn’t have that number! Anyhow, this was another, “But sir, you gave me seven absences…” He also could not understand the meaning of “There is nothing I can do.” I politely got off the phone as quickly as I could. He started calling and calling and then texting:
SORRY sair,
can u tell me who can hipe me? ;-( Please ;-( ;-( ;-( ;-( ;-( ;-(
In the meantime I started the IPod and I swear this was the first song it randomly picked:
I won’t back down.
No, I won’t back down.
You can stand me up at the gates of Hell, but I won’t back down.
I’ve been playing the song in a continuous loop for an hour. The rest of the lyrics are appropriate for my situation.
*****
And the amazing thing is that this is just the beginning: Tomorrow all five of my classes take their finals.
Update: I posted the video having never watched it. I still like the song but the video is soo '80's (and not in a good way).
So in general, what do these absent students want to be when they grow up? I would think that they are not able to pass their coursework with constant absences. How long does the University allow this to go on before they pull the plug on the free education?
ReplyDeleteYour comment brought a HUGE smile to my face.
ReplyDeleteWelcome to the Emirates!
And that's at least 50 of the questions I have for my Emirati friend who came from a wealthy family and could have had maids and drivers his entire life but gave it up to come to the US.