Strike every nice thing I ever said about my students and how hard they worked! Today was spent not teaching, not running around putting out spot fires like I often do, but arguing. The students in our highest levels, and the best students of those levels no less have mounted an insurrection. No doubt fueled in part by international headlines about revolution! Revolution and protests in Egypt, Syria, Afghanistan, Bahrain and hell even the US have I believe created an atmosphere of "we are young, we are loud, who gives a shit if we are right?!" "yeah look we can say dirty words so ha!" At the heart of our students protests is the fact that they have to take midterms...that's right midterms.
Midterms were originally postponed a day due to a dust storm. The next day was so nice the students decided to take it off too. Since they had already missed two days, the dean rescheduled exams until after the spring break and ordered classes to be taught the rest of the week. Yeah that didn't happen...because nobody came to school for the rest of the week and just took an extended spring break. So this morning we were all ready to take the exams...all except the students. After an extra 15 days to study, they came to school tired, and angry, having spent their entire Spring Break in nearby alcohol rich countries, they had no intention of taking a test today. So instead they got together over the past day or two and decided that they would threaten us with complaints if we dared to give them the exam now. You see, Spring Break is for their vacation here in the Magic Kingdom, not for study, but as a reward for all their hard work. So therefore, the 15 days was not a blessing, but it was actually a curse. Are you following this bullshit? Because I had trouble following it...Long story short, they have been ordered to take the exam tomorrow at 1, they wanted to go home early today in order to "study"...can you believe this? I didn't have much to do in my lab anyway, so I let them go 90 min early. They spent the time they were given in the parking lot bitching and trying to get even more students riled up about imaginary problems. Then they called our "boss" in Riyadh, and while we can't get him to answer our calls about anything, he answers theirs. I asked the department for a meeting, and let them know that I was 99% positive that this was all the doing of one organizer, and that our response needed to be unified, swift and unrelenting. For the most part they agreed. By the end of that meeting, our "boss" had called us for "no reason", "just seeing how everything is going"...
I know for a fact that they are organized because they all said the exact same phrases of complaint...smooth super spies, smooth...At one point, I thought about telling them that the penalty for mutiny on the good ship "Mr. Geoff" was walking the plank. Or that deserters would be shot...reason got the best of me though and I just decided to laugh it off. Yes folks I laughed it off. Don't feel bad for doubting that, I still can't believe it myself.
Pretty sure the lazy bastards aren't going to show at test time...if they do, I'm expecting a repeat of the insurrection before and after the test...freakin' unbelievable! I'm thinking about handing out grade cards that say "I am a lazy, bullshitting, liar, BUT I got an A!"
Oh well, I got the grill fired up, my Budweiser N/A, some cigarettes and my iPod...Its all gonna be OK
**Let me clarify that I draw no comparisons between revolutions of freedom from oppressive regimes and this nonsense. My only point was that the Arab Spring may have unintentionally fostered an atmosphere of generalized revolt. Not against anything in-particular mind you, just a generalized feeling of revolt against "unhappiness". Maybe it really is just an "Era of discontent"
Midterms were originally postponed a day due to a dust storm. The next day was so nice the students decided to take it off too. Since they had already missed two days, the dean rescheduled exams until after the spring break and ordered classes to be taught the rest of the week. Yeah that didn't happen...because nobody came to school for the rest of the week and just took an extended spring break. So this morning we were all ready to take the exams...all except the students. After an extra 15 days to study, they came to school tired, and angry, having spent their entire Spring Break in nearby alcohol rich countries, they had no intention of taking a test today. So instead they got together over the past day or two and decided that they would threaten us with complaints if we dared to give them the exam now. You see, Spring Break is for their vacation here in the Magic Kingdom, not for study, but as a reward for all their hard work. So therefore, the 15 days was not a blessing, but it was actually a curse. Are you following this bullshit? Because I had trouble following it...Long story short, they have been ordered to take the exam tomorrow at 1, they wanted to go home early today in order to "study"...can you believe this? I didn't have much to do in my lab anyway, so I let them go 90 min early. They spent the time they were given in the parking lot bitching and trying to get even more students riled up about imaginary problems. Then they called our "boss" in Riyadh, and while we can't get him to answer our calls about anything, he answers theirs. I asked the department for a meeting, and let them know that I was 99% positive that this was all the doing of one organizer, and that our response needed to be unified, swift and unrelenting. For the most part they agreed. By the end of that meeting, our "boss" had called us for "no reason", "just seeing how everything is going"...
I know for a fact that they are organized because they all said the exact same phrases of complaint...smooth super spies, smooth...At one point, I thought about telling them that the penalty for mutiny on the good ship "Mr. Geoff" was walking the plank. Or that deserters would be shot...reason got the best of me though and I just decided to laugh it off. Yes folks I laughed it off. Don't feel bad for doubting that, I still can't believe it myself.
Pretty sure the lazy bastards aren't going to show at test time...if they do, I'm expecting a repeat of the insurrection before and after the test...freakin' unbelievable! I'm thinking about handing out grade cards that say "I am a lazy, bullshitting, liar, BUT I got an A!"
Oh well, I got the grill fired up, my Budweiser N/A, some cigarettes and my iPod...Its all gonna be OK
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