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Marty,
LOVE your idea of allowing a make-up exam
composed of 90% essays taken in your office. Will try it next
semester.
Karen
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Wednesday, May 10, 2006 8:45
AM
Subject: TEACHSOC: on Eileen's dealings
with deans
In my years, not only including chairing a large department but
one with five branches, and having loads of students like Eileen going out to
teach, it has been my experience that it is possible that any one of the
actors in these dramas can be very wrong. Certainly students are
commonly irresponsible, and the stupidity of small college administrators can
be astonishing, but often enough the student is in the right. My
query is whether you took the time to talk in detail to the student and find
out why she acted the way she did. We don't have this much on our
traditional-age main campus, but out on our branches it isn't unusual to find
that your irresponsible student is a single mom, and couldn't leave for the
final until the baby stopped throwing up or
something. Perhaps the dean was the first time she told her entire
story (I know of such cases). So all that I would throw in, before
partially endorsing Robert's idea, is that you talk to her and at least give
her a chance to give her side of the story. Of course, my first
presumption would be that the dean is a
moron.
As to Robert's
notion that you let her take the exam, but at the end of the exam
time you collect all exams and leave, I would add that as soon as
the first person leaves the room I will no longer allow anyone to start,
because then the questions are out in public circulation. If you
teach long enough, though,. you will find even one of your best students will
have a nervous collapse and sleep through the start of an exam
occasionally.
Particularly
early in my career I had a lot of working people who had a lot of excuses,
most of which were hogwash. My way of sorting them out was that I
told them they could take a make-up exam in 101, but I wasn't going to do more
multiple choice again, so the make-up would be essay. 90% suddenly found a way
to make it to the exam. The ones who dropped to their knees,
started crying, grabbed my ankles and couldn't stop saying thank you, I
figured probably had a real problem.
marty
Martin D.
Schwartz
Professor of Sociology
Ohio University
119 Bentley
Annex
Athens, OH 45701
740.593.1366 (voice)
740.593.1365 (fax)
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