Oh god. It's that time of year again...

[akashiver]

Midterm season is upon us, bringing my first round of whiny student emails who want, with varying degrees of rudeness, to protest their grades. Very rarely do you get a politely worded email - almost all of them seem to have been typed late at night without benefit of a spell check ("how dr you criticise my enklish?"). They go on to explain that the class is beneath them and is way too easy (yet they are unable to earn good grades in it), and, more often then not, they conclude by telling you that the reason this grade is so particularly awful is that they want to be an English teacher. (In my roommate's case, they want to teach creative writing.)

I hate getting these emails - first, because they're usually insulting, and unlike the students in question you have to be professional in your response; secondly, they're *so* arrogant - the 80s seems to have bred a generation of incredibly entitled kids who will tell you with straight faces that they deserve to earn full credit for an assignment they didn't do, or that they deserve an A on a crappy paper because they *did* it, or because their neighbor's dog read it and thought they deserved an A. These emails also translate into a lot of work because you have to go back, reread the essay, look at other students essays etc. to make sure that you didn't miscalculate anything or overlook a potential saving grace in an argument. It's tiring and irritating and I hate it. *groan*

Comments

[somemonad.livejournal.com]

Celebrate the end of the week at the Crazy Horse?

[akashiver.livejournal.com]

Definitely.

[squishymeister.livejournal.com]

Hey!!! *I* was born in the 80s!!!

I'm sorry that some undergrad can be poopy! They gives us a bad name!!!

oh, me knows dat :)

[akashiver.livejournal.com]

The majority of the students are fine. In fact, one of the reasons I hate the whiny ones so much is that they tend to overshadow the nice, quiet kids in the class who could probably do with more 1 on 1 attention from the teacher. The time I spend writing 3rd and forth replies to students who won't take "no" for an answer is time I don't have to give extra pointers to the C and B students who could really benefit from it.

So I guess the message is, the squeaky wheel gets the grease. :(

[moonandserpent.livejournal.com]

You know, I'll break my current "no alcohol" policy if you want to go drinking sometime.

Well, I hate to corrupt you...

[akashiver.livejournal.com]

But if you're up for it, it'd be great. :)

Re: Well, I hate to corrupt you...

[moonandserpent.livejournal.com]

Hey, corrupt away... When shall we do this thing?