Student "edition" found at {csi dot journalspace dot com}.

Maybe I shouldn't have started this blog now, not with everything that's been going on.

I was talking about my first Engineering Materials Science lecture class for the twelfth week of the first term. I've already endured this student asking me to turn down the music on the computer in the faculty room while he was taking a special exam, attempting to borrow my index cards in class so he could copy a definition that I had dictated to the class which he couldn't follow, asking me to move from where I was standing so he could copy something on the board that he hadn't finished yet, asking me not to erase the board yet because he hadn't finished copying and use another part of the board instead, ignoring the do not disturb indicator I placed at the the faculty room reception area just because he wanted help with his studying.

Somehow I get the feeling that this student either has a very overinflated idea of what the teachers are supposed to do for the students, or he's really just insensitive and dense to meaning of the Golden Rule.

It never ceases to amaze me, and if I could give a grade for how the students are supposed to learn socially acceptable behavior in the classroom, this student would have failed from the first time I taught him in trigonometric applications three years ago. Since then he has not learned how to think for himself (everything has to be spoon fed to him when he admits to the teacher that he doesn't understand), he has not learned how to work well in groups, and he believes he can take every opportunity offered by the teacher to increase his grade even when it would be unfair to the rest of the class (such as submitting his assignment a week late, and passing an Innovation Week project in the middle of the exhibit itself, and passing the proposal – which defeats the purpose – at the same time).

But somehow he knows he will earn his classmates' wrath if he tells them to their face that their answers to the previous board work were wrong.

And at least he does review the examples that are given. Some students don't even do that.

In the end, his bad habits grossly outweigh his very slight good ones and unless they are corrected – hopefully with continuous sessions with the guidance counselor – he is going to be an embarrassment to the school in the future.

Session 1251 is also insensitive. Class dismissed.