Stupid students who dont know they are stupid

[TimeForGuinness]

Jesus Christ man. Out of the 4 years undergrad I spent and a year in grad school, I have never experienced having peers that are as big of pieces of [expletive] as what you guys deal with.

I was a TA for a number of years (slave labor)...I got to see students from the other side of the looking glass. Most were awesome, a few were...challenging...

[lukethedrifter]

Since it's really about the same sort of stupidity, I'm going to play like this thread is Stupid Subordinates who don't know they are Stupid.

So I get a missive saying that I need to let one of my guys leave work every MWF for a few hours to go help out with training some guys for a big annual event. I get notified on the very day he's supposed to go out, of course. I hadn't heard anything from him so I went to ask him about it and he acted like he didn't know what I was talking about, saying in a rather irritated manner that he hadn't signed up to volunteer for anything. I told him that was fine but he would need to let the proper people know he would not be assisting. He finally admitted that, 'oh I did tell so and so on the phone that I would help'.
Anyway, so I have him write something up saying that he will not be able to assist with the training. A few hours later when I read his note, it said: I will not be attending Said Big Annual Event. I looked at it and was floored. Nothing about training guys, just that he would not be there on the night before TDay. So I had to go to him and explain what was wrong with what he had written and he got mad, as if I was [expletive] with him. WTF??, man. All you needed to do was write that you would not be able to assist with the training. That's it. That's what I asked.

I dunno, maybe this doesn't go here. Maybe he does know how stupid he is.

[a_smith]

Since it's really about the same sort of stupidity, I'm going to play like this thread is Stupid Subordinates who don't know they are Stupid.

So I get a missive saying that I need to let one of my guys leave work every MWF for a few hours to go help out with training some guys for a big annual event. I get notified on the very day he's supposed to go out, of course. I hadn't heard anything from him so I went to ask him about it and he acted like he didn't know what I was talking about, saying in a rather irritated manner that he hadn't signed up to volunteer for anything. I told him that was fine but he would need to let the proper people know he would not be assisting. He finally admitted that, 'oh I did tell so and so on the phone that I would help'.
Anyway, so I have him write something up saying that he will not be able to assist with the training. A few hours later when I read his note, it said: I will not be attending Said Big Annual Event. I looked at it and was floored. Nothing about training guys, just that he would not be there on the night before TDay. So I had to go to him and explain what was wrong with what he had written and he got mad, as if I was [expletive] with him. WTF??, man. All you needed to do was write that you would not be able to assist with the training. That's it. That's what I asked.

I dunno, maybe this doesn't go here. Maybe he does know how stupid he is.

Hmm good point. Perhaps he is just lazy. But laziness often masquerades as stupidity, or stupidity as laziness. It fits.

I will say that your employee is the stupid student in 5 years once a degree is earned a job is found.

[a_smith]

And more update

1)Student who plagiarized me went to my dean and asked for an apology from me for being mean to her.

Why does she need an apology? Because she said I yelled at her [I didn't]. And that I called her a plagiarist.[she is]

This is especially unfair she said because she is not the kind of person who does this and as evidence she cited that she had never, ever been caught plagiarizing in high school.

She started crying as she said that her trust in my institution and her faith in the goodness of professors has been fundamentally violated, and that in order to have this faith restored I should be disciplined to fullest extent that the university can. She didn't like it when he pointed out that I was being exceedingly generous by not failing her for the course.

Best part of the story is now the student has gone to complain to his boss about him being mean.

I really do work at bizarroworld university where the students are entitled and the professors are servants.

[Joe Shlabotnik]

Unbelievable.

Of course, this person will, in a decade or so, begin a very successful political career based on this skill set. She didn't happen to have an American flag lapel pin already did she?

[sighyoung]

Wow. In her bizarre alternative universe, telling as many people as possible that she's an emotionally disturbed plagiarist is the fast track to a Supreme Court clerkship.

[sighyoung]

I have an update, too.

My student (who insists that "write on assigned works" means "write on whatever I damned please, and you have to give me full credit") met with my chair, who backed me up. The chair essentially said that I had discretion in grading, and calmly told the student that she should meet with me to try to work through the misunderstanding and come to some mutual agreement. The student also changed her argument from demanding full credit for ignoring the instructions, to getting proper credit for the work she did do. Of course, she already has proper credit--she only needed to look at the exam I gave her. And the chair was quite honest--no student has EVER complained about me in nineteen years of teaching, so the student's description of me as emotionally abusive and out of control (supposedly, I threw things around the room, and so on) didn't gibe with what others knew of me.

Of course, the student refuses to e-mail or speak to me, and will likely go through the entire semester this way, which is a shame, because I welcome students stopping by to talk about their exams, and am willing to give some credit if they genuinely understood the material, and I offer tips so they can do better next time. All this because she couldn't properly prepare for an exam.

Instead, she's wandering the university like the Ancient Mariner, telling everybody within earshot how emotionally unstable and abusive I am, and how she's deathly afraid of me and how I have and some alleged vendetta against her. She came to class yesterday, but look wild-eyed at me as if I were going to bite her.

I feel badly about this, but know I'm going to have to be wary of this individual for the rest of the semester.

[cards2468]

Why aren't educators allowed to hand out brutal beatings anymore?

[heyzeus]

I think it's time to bring back the Board of Education. A_smith and Sigh, you have my full legal blessing to administer some higher education.



Man, it sure looks like that board is doing some penetrating. Don't do that. That's probably illegal no matter how you slice it.

[lukethedrifter]

I hope you two don't mind if I pass on your stories to this ridiculous friend of mine who wants to quit her job because she has a problem student.