Annette wrote, in part:
[snip]
> Of course, then I get the students who say, "I studied with so and so and
> s/he got on an A on the exam and I got a C, how can that be?"
>
> OH! how I have to bite my tongue to keep from explaining that some
> people are just better at some things than are others. Ultimately
> I sometimes (seldom) resort to the old discussion of we are all better
> at some things than at others and we should never forget those things
> we are good at when suffering through the things we are not so good at.
"I was a terrific high school basketball player, and I went to every basketball
practice that Michael did, and really sweated a lot at every one of them. I even
practiced by myself some more. So why did Michael score so many more points
than I did?"
Why bite your tongue?
I think of one of my graduate school classmates who spent his entire academic
career at Rockefeller, while my first job was teaching five courses a semester at a
very small private college. So why did he have so much more success in his
career than I did?
I think of the undergraduate research assistant we once had in a lab I worked in.
She's now a full professor at a prestigious university and her name appears in the
popular literature every once in a while. So why am I teaching four courses a
semester at a small regional university?
Why expect life to be fair?
Pat Cabe
Patrick Cabe, Ph.D.
Department of Psychology
University of North Carolina at Pembroke
Pembroke, NC 28372-1510
E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
910-521-6630 - Voice/voice-mail
910-521-6240 - Department
910-521-6518 - FAX
