Thursday, February 14, 2008

"Your Student Isn't the Narcissist. You Are. Oh, and Me, Too, If You Count that Printer Story Against Me."

A kid coming by looking for a lost book is narcissism? Someone needs a reality check. The true act of narcissism is thinking a room you use to teach a class in is your sacred shrine and that every student on campus, yours or otherwise, should have your schedule memorized. How is he supposed to know what time your class ends if he's not in it? If he was one of my students, he'd sit on his ass all day not doing his homework and a week later when he had no clue what was going on, he'd tell me it wasn't his fault because he left his book somewhere and by the time he went looking for it, it was gone. I had one slime ball coming in daily saying "Look what I found." which means "Look what I stole as soon as the rightful owner was looking away for 2 seconds." Why do you think the books on half.com are so cheap? Because half of them are stolen. You should be ashamed of yourself for being so critical of a kid who wanted to find his book before it changed hands.

If that ruffles your feathers, it's a good thing you don't teach here. You'd be curled up in the fetal position by the end of your second day. Yesterday I printed an exam on the shared printer in the help room and while the last few pages were coming up, a student, not one of mine, informed me "I have to go to my class now so when my lab report comes up, staple it and put it over there so I can find it later." and started to walk away. I told her "When my test is printed, I'm leaving." and she huffed at me and stormed out.

You need to get a grip. Textbook resale crimes are rampant. I'm not saying kids shouldn't be more careful with their books in the first place, but accidents happen. Don't crucify a kid because he's eager to find something he might not be able to afford to replace. We regularly complain about students who don't bring their books, and then some of us turn around and flame one for trying to find one before it was too late. That is really self centered.