Sunday, May 26, 2013

In which Thinking Proves Exhausting

Sunday comic!

The first panel is a TRUE THING I heard a man say COMPLETELY UNIRONICALLY today.

What words do your students not fully understand the meanings of?

32 comments:

  1. Read. Write. Prepared. Textbook.

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  2. Work. Quiet. Attention. Discipline. Deadline. Neatness. Standards.

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    1. Logic. Reason. Clarity. Responsibility. Initiative. Maturity.

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    2. Respect. Punctuality. Honesty.

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    3. Looking at some of the words listed here, I think that some of them would have been equally as incomprehensible to the administrators at the institution I used to teach at.

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  3. Replies
    1. Mine, too, also. Actually, I don't know if they understand fair or not, but they sure whine about unfair.

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    2. To a student who said some grading policy of mine was "unfair," I once actually said, "You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means." I couldn't stop myself. Fortunately, the student didn't catch the reference and it was a private conference, so I didn't get in trouble.

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    3. One day, in one of the last courses I taught, I gave a quiz. Some students did what they could and handed in their papers before the allotted time was up, but they were in the minority. As I already had enough headaches with that particular group, I gave the remainder a few more minutes to finish.

      Guess who came later on and whined that the extra time was "unfair"? Yup. Those who handed in their papers early. One of them was particularly bratty about it and I sent her on her way with the statement that life isn't fair.

      What she, and the others who submitted their quiz papers early, didn't seem to understand was that I didn't force them to do hand them in when they did. They could have continued until time ran out. They made a decision, acted on it, and had to live with the consequences. That's part of being a responsible adult.

      That incident occurred nearly a dozen years ago. Maybe by now that bratty student has a family of her own. I shudder to think how she would deal with her children if they behaved like she did that day.

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  4. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  5. "Hard." As in: "I worked so hard..." or "This test was so hard." or "The homework was really hard."

    "Academic sources." As in: "Wikipedia/My friend's blog is the only source that dealt with the topic of abortion." or "There are absolutely no academic sources on Emily Dickinson. I googled her all over."

    "Literally." But I think that's a cultural flaw, not literally restricted to students.

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  6. Homework. Report. Email. Attach a file. Submit. Quiz. Manners.

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  7. Dangit, that was mine too!

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  8. I'm with Frog & Toad with the addition of "personal responsibility".

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  9. If. You. Fuck. Up. Again. The. Tokarev. Is. Coming. Out. Of. The. Holster.

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  10. Cover sheet. Office hours. Subject line.

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  11. Yep, that's the only part of "no cell phones" they don't get.

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  12. Final. As in "my decision is final"

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  13. 'Read' as in 'read for a degree'

    'I Earn' and 'You Give' in relation to marks

    'Read' 'The' and 'Syllabus' (they appear to know 'fucking' quite well, judging by their frequent use of it)

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  14. Specific.

    Also, in taxonomic nomenclature:
    Species. Genus. Family. Order. Class. Kingdom.

    A distressing number of them are saying that baboons are classified in the kingdom . . . .






    Wait for it. . . .














    Africa!




    aaarrrggghhhhhhhhhh.

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  15. "Or else," as in, "Do it right, OR ELSE I will staple your dick to the floor."

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