In Which I Don't Help Students

Most of my students are sufficiently hardworking.  Some of my students are really really hardworking and smart.   I try to hold onto that knowledge during days such as today.

I have invigilated my last exam and noticed a peculiar tendency among the students taking such exams to tell me they are nervous and will I please help them.  By this they mean pass them whether they deserve it or not.  This was well illustrated by one young woman who I do not know, she wasn't actually in my class.  She was in last year's programming class.  She failed that exam, for some reason didn't take the supplementary exam then, but got permission to take my supplementary exam instead.  Umm, ok.  The deputy department head gave her permission, so who am I to argue?  Then this student told me she was certain that she had failed because she forgot everything from last year so I "must" help her.  Really now?  I actually don't think I must do any such thing.  

I help students by giving them the lesson notes on request, and making myself available to answer questions and holding a review session before the exam.  I do not help by cheating for them while grading.   Of course, the students that I know were at my seminar will get extra credit, but that's because without my encouraging it they showed up every day on time, with the notes that they'd read in advance, and helped their neighbors.  I could not be more selfishly proud that when people from the community came to the seminar, they saw not just studious university students, they saw my studious university students.  Those students earned some extra credit help, I'm not giving it to some kid I've never seen before who didn't even try to contact me to ask me how to prepare for my exam and thinks I must pass her.  Must forsooth.  I have standards.  

Just to make my day slightly more fun, my troublesome student who cried to me for an hour to change his failing grade (class, not exam grade, so no supplementary to make it up) sent me a text telling me that he had met with my department head who now wanted me to meet with him in order to find a way to "overcome his situation." I checked with my department head, who had told him no such thing.  She had, in fact, told him that the deadline for grade complaints was over and deal with it.  I am really mad at him for lying to me like that.  Seriously, how dumb does he think I am?  I named my headache after him.

Then I tried to find out what the class schedule for this new semester is, since classes started yesterday, but the class schedule isn't actually written yet.  I give up on today.  I will try again tomorrow.