On the stairs of an academic building, 3 minutes before class time:
Student: Professor!
Professor (thinking is this one of mine?): Yes?
Student: I'm in your English 1010 class.
Professor (at least this one knows which English class): What is it?
Student: I just wanted you to know that I'm in sciences and I'm just taking your class because I need my writing requirement.
Professor: (here it comes) . . .
Student: The thing is I really don't get English.
Professor: (Oh no, she's heard about our secret code! I can't just hand that out to someone in the sciences!) Well, you can meet your writing requirement in lots of subjects besides English.
Student: Honestly, I have to take this course because it's the only writing class I can take and still fit in all the science classes I need.
Professor: Hmmm. Well, that's unfortunate.
Student: Yes, it's really awful.
Professor: . . .
2 comments:
I recently had a student in my office to appeal her grade. Exasperated by the fact that none of her pleas effected a grade change, she brought out her best case, saying, "I only took this course because I thought it would raise my GPA, but with this mark it won't."
Ouch: that's a good one. I sometimes wonder, if we could video them and play back the tape, would they feel any shame? I like to imagine they say these things because it hasn't yet occurred to them what they are really saying (like the infamous 'Did I miss anything?'). But I'm not entirely sure.
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