Oh, it is that time of the year!!! The time of the year when students turn into lawyers and lobbyists to have me bend and twist the rules to make up for their fact that THEY ARE NOT GOOD STUDENTS!
Case in point, I just had an exam that could be taken online. The exam date is noted in the agenda, the exam parameters are outlined in the syllabus, the students were asked if they had any questions the class period before the examination period, and the exam dates and times were posted on the class website. The students THEN HAD A 30 HOUR WINDOW to take the exam anywhere they liked with assistance from their notes. I honestly do not see how I could have given a more fair exam.
YET, starting two days after the exam period had closed the e-mails started to find their way to my inbox from students who missed the exam for countless reasons to justify the opportunity to make it up. I also was paid a personal visit by a student who now is claiming a disability in the 14th WEEK OF THE SEMESTER as the reason for causing the missed exam. Yikes!!!!!!!!!
The syllabus clearly states that if a student cannot complete an assignment, like the exam, they are to bring it to my attention BEFORE the assignment comes due and that once the due date passes the grade earned will be a zero. I am also happy to accommodate any and all students who have a learning disability prior to the due date of the assignment and do so happily to level the playing field for all students. That, of course, has fallen on deaf ears because it was of course NOT THE STUDENT'S FAULT they missed the exam; it was everyone and everything else in the world that was to blame. Heaven forbid the students owned up to their error, took the zero, learned not to do that again, and move on making them a better student when all said and done, which I hope will happen but will have to wait and see.
So now some of the "aggrieved students" -- who in FACT BLEW THE ASSIGNMENT ARE NOW LOOKING FOR SALVATION -- are climbing the chain of command to tell my department head , dean, and the office of the Dean of Students how "unfair" I am not to let them take the exam. Indeed I may even be pressed to not do what is right in this situation and be forced to reward irresponsible students with a mulligan to take the exam which goes against every ethical fiber in my body. It also cheapens the efforts, in my book, of all those students who simply took the exam as expected and is the BIGGEST SIN OF ALL.
I am ranting about this today because I think it is yet another "brick in the wall" of what is wrong with the American Society today. Each class of students I see entering college has the attitude of being entitled to a degree instead of making the grade and earning it the old fashioned way -- through hard work and dedication to ones' studies -- and we have got to do our level best to establish standards and stick to them for THEIR SAKE because the world does not give mulligans to those who screw up -- unless of course you are a Wall Street bank and got some of that government bailout money, which is another story -- and we do them no favors by continually cutting them slack.
So to all those of you out there who have standards of excellence and not willing to compromise on them to accommodate those who do NOT DESERVE such accommodation I applaud you today and want you to know you are not the one with the problem. It is those who do not play by the rules yet want to be treated like those that did who are the problem.
So I would like to end this post with one of my favorite lines from the movie Brubaker, starring Robert Redford, which tells the true story of a man who took over a prison and the obstacles he ran into by those managing the prison system when he tried to run the prison according to the law: "You can compromise on strategy but not on priniple." So my hat is off to all of you out there who took a principled stand and did the right thing and not bowing to the dark forces of entitlement!
So for those of you who need to rant about a same or similar situation please add to today's post.
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