I don’t like this time of the semester. A couple of years ago at around this time, I summarized why.
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What do you mean, “Why am I failing English?”
You’ve failed EVERY SINGLE ASSIGNMENT since the beginning of the course. You handed in your first essay 2 weeks late, and you wouldn’t have handed it in at all if I hadn’t asked you where the hell it was. You got 37% on your last practice essay, but you didn’t ask me a SINGLE QUESTION about why, or even look at the detailed feedback sheet I filled out for you, and then you went ahead and wrote the real essay, and got a 40% on that.
What do you mean, what can you do to catch up? There are TWO WEEKS left in the semester. You’ve been failing English since the fourth or fifth week – why are you coming to see me about this now? Your grades have been posted up this whole time. The fact that you’re failing English is NOT NEWS.
Yes, I’m sure your other courses HAVE been very difficult. If you’ve chosen to prioritize your other courses, then that is a perfectly legitimate choice. We all make such choices. Most of us also recognize that if we don’t prioritize something, we’re not likely to do very well in it.
Why am I angry with you? I’m angry with you because you’ve had 13 weeks to deal with this problem, and yet you march into my office when the semester is, for all intents and purposes, OVER, and you suggest that a) the fact that you’re failing English is a total surprise to you, and b) I am somehow responsible for the fact that you are surprised, and c) I should now be doing something to help you deal with this problem. THERE IS NOTHING THAT CAN BE DONE NOW, and certainly nothing that I can do. The time for dealing with this problem has PASSED.
What’s that? Why don’t I care about your success?
I do care about your success. I care about it very much. I’ve been sitting here in my office, and standing in your classroom, caring about it, all semester.
You’ve been so busy not doing your work, you haven’t noticed.
Classroom as Microcosm 