Slick-tongued Students
It’s amazing. Whenever its time for First Years (or is it under-graduates in general?) to hand in essays, or take tests, the South African mortality rate soars. People’s grandmothers, aunts, cousins, sisters and brothers drop dead in large numbers. Very often, more than one relative pegs on the same weekend.
Meanwhile, mothers and fathers are fighting for their lives in hospital. Or the student is them self recovering from double pneumonia.
Now I don’t mind the personal illness story. If the student doesn’t actually look injured or ill, a doctor’s certificate can be requested. (Apparently we can ask for death certificates too. And that could be interesting).
However, my main point, and anger, is directed at the shameless way these 18 year olds lie. And the way that they are quite content to fabricate something major like family deaths to get away with something trivial like their own laziness. Perhaps I’m superstitious, but as far as I’m concerned that is something dangerous to do.
Perhaps you can shout me down and say that SA tertiary institutes today include people who face major death and disaster on a daily basis.
But, come on, these disasters only ever occur at exam and test time. Mostly, these kids lounge about in lectures like contented housecats. They sit there in their brand clothing, talking on their cellphones, ignoring me, with lazy smiles. There are no similarities between them and, say, shell-shocked refugees retreating without confidence into themselves.
These brats are confident. They can lie without batting an eyelid. And the thing that annoys me the most is that it makes me lose trust in people, and in the end makes me look like the bad guy. A tut pupil could come to me and because I don’t really know them, I’ll automatically reject their tragedy because of all the deceit in the past.
If you want an extension, simply ask for it a few days in advance. Don’t spout bullshit. I’m not accepting it any more. And if your essay isn’t in, you’re getting zero. And it saves me marking.
Meanwhile, mothers and fathers are fighting for their lives in hospital. Or the student is them self recovering from double pneumonia.
Now I don’t mind the personal illness story. If the student doesn’t actually look injured or ill, a doctor’s certificate can be requested. (Apparently we can ask for death certificates too. And that could be interesting).
However, my main point, and anger, is directed at the shameless way these 18 year olds lie. And the way that they are quite content to fabricate something major like family deaths to get away with something trivial like their own laziness. Perhaps I’m superstitious, but as far as I’m concerned that is something dangerous to do.
Perhaps you can shout me down and say that SA tertiary institutes today include people who face major death and disaster on a daily basis.
But, come on, these disasters only ever occur at exam and test time. Mostly, these kids lounge about in lectures like contented housecats. They sit there in their brand clothing, talking on their cellphones, ignoring me, with lazy smiles. There are no similarities between them and, say, shell-shocked refugees retreating without confidence into themselves.
These brats are confident. They can lie without batting an eyelid. And the thing that annoys me the most is that it makes me lose trust in people, and in the end makes me look like the bad guy. A tut pupil could come to me and because I don’t really know them, I’ll automatically reject their tragedy because of all the deceit in the past.
If you want an extension, simply ask for it a few days in advance. Don’t spout bullshit. I’m not accepting it any more. And if your essay isn’t in, you’re getting zero. And it saves me marking.
Comments
Good luck.