I came into work late this morning. As I stopped into the history department office to pick up any mail, a colleague shared some good news. Mike, a student in his senior thesis class, had won a department prize for his paper discussing US involvement in Laos during the Vietnam war. As the department's Southeast Asianist, I had spent some time consulting on the paper. It was a strange new feeling to think I might have contributed in a postive way to a student's progression (instead of just intimidating them and destroying their self-confidence, which apparently is my usual contribution.)
Two minutes later I opened my office door and found the following note on the ground:
"Dear Professor,
My name is ________. I am in your history 201 class. I am stupid. I forgot the test ended at noon and wanted to beg you to let me take the test. (I was there @ 3 PM)."
*sigh*
3 comments:
Hey Shane,
When I read this, I rolled my eyes and thought "How stupid are these people" and then suddenly I remembered that I managed to miss a final exam once my second year of school. I can't remember exactly what happened, but I kind of think that the exam was on a Wednesday, and I didn't forget it - I just didn't realize that it was Wednesday. I somehow managed to think it was only Tuesday. When I realized, Thursday morning, what I had done, I just about had a heart attack. Luckily, my teacher just laughed and let me take the test the next day. However, before you start legal proceedings to disown me as your cousin, I must say, in my defense, that my teacher let me off so easily because I had prepared for, attended and participated in every lecture all semester. All my other assingments and tests were done on time and my grade was already good enough that I think I could have passed the class even if I didn't write the final. I'm not sure about that though.
You know, it's a funny thing...
I started legal proceedings to disown you as my cousin, but when I went into the courthouse to file the papers, the officer informed me it was unecessary.
The state does not legally recognize the cousin relationship.
It's just another testament to the oppressive, backward-thinking, tradition society we live in. Is the state now going to tell me that the cousin relationship is valid or invalid?
It's discrimination, is what it is...
So wait...what did you do? Did the student get mercy or justice?
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