Thursday 2 July 2009

University is not the Gospel

“So could you give me [a] second chance to rewrite the paper? I don't think you want your student […] not to be able to graduate because of this class.” So wrote a student of mine in an email I received last night. I gave her 0% for her research paper in my Research Methodology class because she plagiarized the paper in its entirety from the Internet. Apparently failing this class will keep her from graduating.

Her assumption “I don't think you want your student […] not to be able to graduate because of this class” really bothers me. It bothers me, not because she won’t be able to graduate; it bothers me because she is shifting responsibility – as if it is my fault that she won’t be able to graduate. She is not the only student to have approached me with similar sentiment. The underlying premise is that it is I that failed them; not that their failure is a result of their own doing. One student emailed me, saying that because he got an F in one of my classes he won’t be able to stay in the dormitory next semester and hopes that I will change his grade. Another student requested me to raise her grade because she wishes to become a teacher and a C-symbol will reflect badly on her transcript. So too, yet another student complained that he has never received a C, even when he didn't study. And so the list goes on. The majority of them has this attitude that I can merely swing my magic wand and change their lives, they don’t have to deserve it, they only have to beg persistently enough.

I’m sorry, but that is not how it works. Actually, I’m not sorry. I feel indifferent, to be honest. They had opportunity to come see me throughout the semester. There were extra credit assignments. I gave them hints for the exam. You get what you deserve. University is not the Gospel.

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