Response to an Angry Student
In order to understand this blog, you'll have to read Tieger Lily's first. (Click here to read it. Then come back.)
She's pretty mad, huh? I could summarize the story from my perspective, but I think she gets it mostly right. She did ask what she had missed, and I didn't tell her about the word cells list. It slipped my mind. What can I say? But there are a couple of things she didn't make perfectly clear that I think need to be said. The real point of this argument is the question of personal responsibility and, more specifically, this question: At what point can we blame someone else for our own lack of information?
Students in my class know well that everything we do is on the web site. Everything! This is made clear from the first day of school and reinforced every time we go to the computer lab. It's all there and everyone (including Tieger Lily) knows it! The web site is a more reliable source of information about my class than any other source...including me. Why? Teachers are approached between 10 and 100 times a day with various requests from students: Can I turn this in late? Can I bring it tomorrow? Can I use the hall pass? Can I borrow a pencil? What's my grade? Will you print me a progress report? Can I get some extra credit? Why do we have to do this? What's the date? Can we write on this? How old are you? When does this class end? What page? What did I miss? Consider for a moment that each teacher has about 180-200 students a day. If every student made only one request, the teacher would spend the entire day dealing with only those requests. No new material could ever be presented; no teaching or learning would occur. This is why, as Tieger Lily pointed out, I have a sign on my wall demanding Personal Responsibility. I can't be responsible for all my students even if I want to. All I can be responsible for is creating an environment that is conducive to learning the things that students in my class need to know. My responsibilities are to the class as a whole, and my responsibilities to the class end when the bell rings and a new class comes in. My students know that everything we do is on the web site. But here is Tieger Lily's take on that: "Now, of course, I could have checked the website, but, if I asked what I missed, why in the world, would I read what I was already told? I mean come on I do have a life, and I am not going to spend it reading Mr. Tompson's [sic] website."
Here's the problem with that argument: She never should have had to ask me what she missed in the first place because she should have already checked the web site. A truly responsible individual would have done that on the day she missed class, not the following morning when her poor, overworked teacher has already answered 50 other requests from other students. But Tieger Lily still wants me to be responsible to tell her what she missed even though I had nothing to do with her absence. She wants someone to blame.
Who missed class? Tieger Lily did. My responsibility to the students in that class was met when I showed up to present new information to them that day. It's not my fault that Tieger Lily wasn't there. So not only does she expect me to meet my responsibility to a class that she doesn't have the courtesy to attend, she also expects me to shoulder her responsibility for finding out what she missed. Even if I had remembered to tell her about the word cells, the only thing I would have said is my usual refrain: "It's on the web site." A fact that she already knows well.
Let's look at this in a new light, shall we? Let's say Tieger Lily had missed her dentist appointment to attend my class. Would it be reasonable of her to go to the dentist's office early the following morning, without an appointment and while he was preparing to pull a tooth from another patient, and ask him to just quickly examine her mouth for cavities? Do you think the dentist would do it? Probably not. Not only that, the dentist would charge her for the appointment she missed! Tieger Lily's expectation of the dentist would be unreasonable, as is her expectation of me in this situation.
Let's look at it from yet another angle: Let's say Tieger Lily takes her car in for an oil change. The mechanic performs the oil change and recommends that she also let him flush the radiator (for an added fee) and put in new antifreeze so that her car will start during the cold winter months. Let's say she doesn't want to pay that extra fee, so she tells him just to do the oil change. Then, in mid-January, her car won't start. Is it reasonable of her to go back to the mechanic and be mad at him even though he suggested that she replace the antifreeze to avoid just such a problem? No, it isn't. And the situation Tieger Lily described in her blog is exactly like this one. I am the mechanic who suggested she change the antifreeze (i.e., check the web site) for an added fee (i.e., some extra effort on her part). She chose not to, and the car wouldn't start (i.e., she wasn't ready for the test). And she has the nerve to say now that it is all my fault. Shame on you, Tieger Lily!
Why is it reasonable then for Tieger Lily to expect that when she shows up unannounced and asks, "What did I miss?" that, for no reward whatsoever, I should immediately stop what I am doing and provide her with detailed information that all the people who bothered to show up already have? Why not ask one of her friends in the class? Why not CHECK THE WEBSITE, where--as she well knows--all the information she needs already exists? The reason is simple: She wants to escape responsibility. And, in a way, I let her do it. I didn't make her take the quiz. I let her write a blog instead. ;-)
Of course she'll now have to come in and make up that quiz on her own time next week...but she'll probably find a way to blame to me when she forgets to do it. I've seen her type before. By the end of the year, she'll understand. For now, she'll just have to stay mad at me.
She's pretty mad, huh? I could summarize the story from my perspective, but I think she gets it mostly right. She did ask what she had missed, and I didn't tell her about the word cells list. It slipped my mind. What can I say? But there are a couple of things she didn't make perfectly clear that I think need to be said. The real point of this argument is the question of personal responsibility and, more specifically, this question: At what point can we blame someone else for our own lack of information?
Students in my class know well that everything we do is on the web site. Everything! This is made clear from the first day of school and reinforced every time we go to the computer lab. It's all there and everyone (including Tieger Lily) knows it! The web site is a more reliable source of information about my class than any other source...including me. Why? Teachers are approached between 10 and 100 times a day with various requests from students: Can I turn this in late? Can I bring it tomorrow? Can I use the hall pass? Can I borrow a pencil? What's my grade? Will you print me a progress report? Can I get some extra credit? Why do we have to do this? What's the date? Can we write on this? How old are you? When does this class end? What page? What did I miss? Consider for a moment that each teacher has about 180-200 students a day. If every student made only one request, the teacher would spend the entire day dealing with only those requests. No new material could ever be presented; no teaching or learning would occur. This is why, as Tieger Lily pointed out, I have a sign on my wall demanding Personal Responsibility. I can't be responsible for all my students even if I want to. All I can be responsible for is creating an environment that is conducive to learning the things that students in my class need to know. My responsibilities are to the class as a whole, and my responsibilities to the class end when the bell rings and a new class comes in. My students know that everything we do is on the web site. But here is Tieger Lily's take on that: "Now, of course, I could have checked the website, but, if I asked what I missed, why in the world, would I read what I was already told? I mean come on I do have a life, and I am not going to spend it reading Mr. Tompson's [sic] website."
Here's the problem with that argument: She never should have had to ask me what she missed in the first place because she should have already checked the web site. A truly responsible individual would have done that on the day she missed class, not the following morning when her poor, overworked teacher has already answered 50 other requests from other students. But Tieger Lily still wants me to be responsible to tell her what she missed even though I had nothing to do with her absence. She wants someone to blame.
Who missed class? Tieger Lily did. My responsibility to the students in that class was met when I showed up to present new information to them that day. It's not my fault that Tieger Lily wasn't there. So not only does she expect me to meet my responsibility to a class that she doesn't have the courtesy to attend, she also expects me to shoulder her responsibility for finding out what she missed. Even if I had remembered to tell her about the word cells, the only thing I would have said is my usual refrain: "It's on the web site." A fact that she already knows well.
Let's look at this in a new light, shall we? Let's say Tieger Lily had missed her dentist appointment to attend my class. Would it be reasonable of her to go to the dentist's office early the following morning, without an appointment and while he was preparing to pull a tooth from another patient, and ask him to just quickly examine her mouth for cavities? Do you think the dentist would do it? Probably not. Not only that, the dentist would charge her for the appointment she missed! Tieger Lily's expectation of the dentist would be unreasonable, as is her expectation of me in this situation.
Let's look at it from yet another angle: Let's say Tieger Lily takes her car in for an oil change. The mechanic performs the oil change and recommends that she also let him flush the radiator (for an added fee) and put in new antifreeze so that her car will start during the cold winter months. Let's say she doesn't want to pay that extra fee, so she tells him just to do the oil change. Then, in mid-January, her car won't start. Is it reasonable of her to go back to the mechanic and be mad at him even though he suggested that she replace the antifreeze to avoid just such a problem? No, it isn't. And the situation Tieger Lily described in her blog is exactly like this one. I am the mechanic who suggested she change the antifreeze (i.e., check the web site) for an added fee (i.e., some extra effort on her part). She chose not to, and the car wouldn't start (i.e., she wasn't ready for the test). And she has the nerve to say now that it is all my fault. Shame on you, Tieger Lily!
Why is it reasonable then for Tieger Lily to expect that when she shows up unannounced and asks, "What did I miss?" that, for no reward whatsoever, I should immediately stop what I am doing and provide her with detailed information that all the people who bothered to show up already have? Why not ask one of her friends in the class? Why not CHECK THE WEBSITE, where--as she well knows--all the information she needs already exists? The reason is simple: She wants to escape responsibility. And, in a way, I let her do it. I didn't make her take the quiz. I let her write a blog instead. ;-)
Of course she'll now have to come in and make up that quiz on her own time next week...but she'll probably find a way to blame to me when she forgets to do it. I've seen her type before. By the end of the year, she'll understand. For now, she'll just have to stay mad at me.
posted by MRT at 2:48 PM
2 Comments:
I am now making bets on who will win this argument. I have 10$ on Tigar Lilly. I do this b/c I know she will never give up. Unlike you. I am predicting that you will get bored sometime in December.
Mr. Thompson you are so great. The comment that the person (Bertha) made earlier is probably true, but if you get bored of it, it gives "Tiger Lilly" no one to complain to and if it's not bugging anyone why bother with it. This is really funny, and I want to see how it all turns out!
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