A two-part lesson

Or, sometimes people are devious jerks, and sometimes they are not.

Part one: student (call the student S.) comes to me, asks to take an arranged class I offer, well, by arrangement. S. wants to know if S. can take the class for 2 credit hours - it is normally only offered for one. I had offered it for 2 once before in a very dire case - someone in danger of not having enough credits to graduate - but then again I also once had someone somehow get enrolled in the class without my knowledge or approval, and be enrolled for 3 credit hours. (And then that person got huffy with me when I told him he needed to have met with me earlier - "I didn't know who was teaching it!" he exclaimed. Um, part of the point of an 'arranged' class is you take some initiative and FIND OUT who your professor is). But I had forgotten that incident, so I said, "Fine, okay it with the chair and I will do it."

Turns out the student S. was doing an end-run around what S.'s advisor advised S. to take - a more-credit-hours but more suitable (and more work) class.

So the chair came and told me, "Don't ever agree to more than one credit hour again without checking with me first."

Dangit. I felt bad the rest of the day over it - it put my chair out, it put S.'s advisor out. I don't think either of them was upset with me, but it still bothered me. Mainly because S. was trying to take advantage of my lack-of-knowledge of the situation and my generally agreeable nature. When something like this happens, I kind of stamp around and cuss and say "No More Ms. Nice Guy!" and swear that I will do the bare minimum necessary to serve the students, because I'm so tired of people taking advantage of my good nature. I'm so tired of people shirking their responsibilities.

But part 2: One of my stats students called me up. A. had been absent for several days and I was afraid A. had dropped. A. had been doing well in the class and so I felt bad that maybe they had to drop. Turns out a cousin had died and A. had had to travel to go to a cousin's funeral a considerable distance away. A. needed an extension on the homework and wanted to meet with me....but because of needing to make up hours at work, A. could not meet Friday afternoon. So I sighed, and sort of against my will said, "Try calling me Saturday morning; I might be in my office and could meet with you then."

I didn't really WANT to, but I had some research I had to get done, so I went in and worked. Stuck around longer than I intended because A. hadn't called. I was just beginning to get to the point of thinking A. wasn't going to call, when A. called. So I said, "Come by, I'll let you in, I'll explain what you missed and you can finish the homework and hand it in."

It turns out A. had gotten some notes from someone else, so wasn't totally behind, and it just took a little help. And when A. handed in the homework and I graded it, they earned 100% on it.

So, I don't know. I'm still annoyed at S. but I'm glad I was able to help A. I guess the moral is that some people just tend to try to do devious stuff but not to let them get you down too much, or something.

But it is hard, when you're a fundamentally honest person who wouldn't think of trying to dupe someone else, not to be kind of upset by someone doing it to you. (Not to mention that not having the recommended class, S. would probably have a harder time getting a job - especially in today's job market. But I guess people don't think of that.)