Student: I'm unhappy with the exam because I did poorly.And on and on and on, with the creepy vibe permeating my entire office. He was very careful to say that he was unhappy with the exam, not with himself. I think he wanted me to confess that, yes, his disappointing performance was really my fault after all, or maybe the fault of those evil graders who took all his points away. The facts that there were several perfect scores, the modal letter grade was an A, and the median percentage was 89%, never came up in the discussion.
AP: I can't help you if I don't know why you did poorly.
Student: Well, I just wanted you to know that I'm unhappy with the exam.
AP: Is there something I can help you with right now?
Student: No, I just wanted you to know that I'm unhappy with the exam.
Friday, April 28, 2006
There's a can of mace in my desk.
There is a really creepy student in my class. He sits in the back, takes no notes, and stares intently at me throughout my entire 80 minute lecture. Yesterday he came to my office to tell me that he was unhappy with the exam. He did "poorly," and earned a C. He couldn't tell me why he had done poorly (i.e., what material he had misunderstood), but he wanted to let me know that he was unhappy. That was all. The conversation took 15 minutes, and went like this:
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9 comments:
Haaaa... the crazy student story... Don't we all have some of those and don't they light up our lives... years later, that is, when we can laugh about them because, institutionally, we tend to be powerless to deal with such cases when they happen.
AP, you should have an annex to this blog where we could post our crazy student stories!
Hmmm. Last time I had a student who similarly stared in class without taking notes, who similarly came to my office hours with unidentifiable problems, who similarly insisted on discussing those problems in unidentifiable ways for interminable lengths of time...he followed up with a series of love letters and emails that required a dean's intervention to stop. You, my friend, may be the object of a crush.
lol. I have a lot of those folks. Especially the ones who try to blame their sub-par performance on me. It's actually exhausting sometimes dealing with their drama.
If this guy has a crush on me, it's a "drill a hole in her skull and pour boiling water in it" crush, not a "bad poetry and CDs of sappy songs that make me think of you" crush.
Best of luck on this one, AP. Have you talked to your dept head or campus security? Ick. I'm getting the creeps as I type. I think the mace is a good idea, as is leaving your office door open when this weirdo comes in.
Last semester, I had a student who stared intently at me as does your student. So I started staring back intently (and calmly). It worked. He stopped shooting daggers at me through his eyes. I don't know what his problem was, but I guess he got over it. Perhaps he was trying to intimidate me? Who knows. He still got a C.
Sometimes a student thinks s/he should be able to intimidate you, perhaps b/c it worked with someone else or someone planted a bee up his/her ass; sometimes they really think it's all your fault and that has worked before so s/he is trying it again, and that, about 10 or more % of the time (at my U., anyway), hides a learning disability or undiagnosed mental issue/problem. Get the mace, tell your dept. head, tell security (esp. if you feel creeped out enough to arm yourself) AND show the bastard no fear. Stare back. Refuse to listen to him repeat how YOU made him get a C for the 3rd time in one conference. Institute a 15-minute limit for drop-ins. Or appointments. Take control and cover your ass.
I had a student--hell, I have a student like that, male, every few years. I tell EVERYbody, including, if I am frightened, other male students I trust. Usually, nothing happens.
There's a student like that in the statistics class I'm taking. He was bragging after we filled out our teacher evaluations that he was going to try his best to get our (wonderful, dedicated)professor fired. Why? Because our professor actually tests us on concepts this student would have mastered if he'd done the blooming homework.
Makes me sick.
Students everywhere, take responsibility for your own crap and don't blame your teachers.
Ew. Reminds me of my last patently insane student, who stopped by at the end of last term to inquire as to why they didn't receive full credit on an answer on the final exam. As they turned to biblical responses and increasingly got hysteric, I cautiously eyed the scissors on my meeting table right next to the student (I had been opening packages when they unexpectedly arrived) and wondered if discreetly snatching them up and placing them in a drawer would be too obvious that I thought they were NUTS. I also wondered how long it would take my colleagues to come to my door in response to my scream. Nothing happened, but now my scissors are always secured away.
I regularly get "don't know when to leave" students. When one shows up, I excuse myself for a minute and tell them I just remembered I had to tell a colleague something, and that I'd be right back. I then walk down the hall and ask a colleague to call me in 5 or 10 minutes, and why.
Then, when I get back to my soul-sucking student, I tell them that I'm expecting a VERY important phone call in ten minutes, thereby setting a time limit on our conversation.
Then when my colleague calls, I shoo the student out of the office. I't manipulative, but it works.
You might want to use it with yours.
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