"Next time I do this ... oh, wait."

Earlier I found myself, thinking, "Well, next semester I'll have to be more careful about how much time I allow myself to grade..." and then I thought, "Next semester, I won't be grading. At all."

The "I need to plan better" thought came because I talked to the students in the 102, and to my dismay, almost all of them want to conference with me on their final essays. I'll try to talk a few more of them out of it, but if I can't, I've had to come up with a slight modification to the process, as there's no way in hell I can get thirteen essays graded in 24 hours or less. Even getting five graded in that time frame would be a hell of a push. I just decided that I'll offer conferences on the day after their essays are due--but if anyone chooses a conference time that day, they'll have to bring a hard copy to conference, and I'll comment and grade on the fly. I'll have more appointments on the Thursday, when the students usually have class, and I'll try my damndest to get things graded using the old system prior to any of those conferences--hoping there won't be too many of them. Nevertheless, talking more of them out of the conference is a really good idea, especially as I also will be conferencing with students from the 101s earlier in the week. I'll be grading those on the fly, but just the time conferencing eats up grading time  On the other hand, for the 102, I am stating very clearly that if they are at all late submitting to Turnitin, I won't conference with them: they get comments if their essay is less than 24 hours late; after that, no comments at all.

I think that will do it.

Radical shift of gears here, but earlier today I remembered that I hadn't put something in yesterday's blog, and it must be recorded.

In Advisement yesterday, I met with a young woman who is just completing her first semester. She wants to withdraw from a number of her courses, primarily because she isn't doing well. She told me that she was taking a couple of courses online, and she hasn't turned in any homework all semester--and only just realized that the homework is a significant portion of her grade. Why didn't she realize that homework "counts"? Because it didn't in high school. Why else? Because she didn't understand that a syllabus isn't just an assignment schedule: at least in theory, it should explain exactly what the grade is based on and other matters of great significance.

OK, I thought, well, there's the learning curve--and that level of ignorance is one of the reasons there is a push to require that every freshman take an "intro to college" course. (We have one now, but it's only required for students who are placed in more than one remedial course.)

So, she and I continued to talk, and she told me that her mother had signed her up for all her classes; she didn't know why her mother had made the choices she did (and her mother doesn't have any fucking idea what the degree requirements are, so had signed her daughter up for courses that were not required--or in at least one case, even beneficial). Then--and here's where I was so stunned I could hardly think how to respond--she told me that, even though she keeps telling her father she wants to do her own work, he does it all for her. He writes all her papers for her. In one particular instance, she'd told him she wanted to write her own history paper. He wrote it for her, and when she asked why, he said, "Well, you were on your phone"--as if her paper could only be done if it were done that specific instance.

I explained to the student that she and her father were guilty of plagiarism. She was shocked. I explained that plagiarism isn't just copying and pasting something from the web: it's passing someone else's work off as your own. I told her the possible ramifications of being caught--and explained how she might be caught. I also said that, if her father continues to do her work for her, it's his degree, not hers: he's stealing that from her.

But all I can think is, what the fuck is wrong with those parents?? I said to the student that her father is not actually helping her in any way; he's making things worse for her. I want to go to that house and scream at those parents. The analogy I used with the student was, it's as if her father never let her learn how to walk but carried her everywhere, because he was afraid she might fall down. I hardly know what to say about it. It's so completely, utterly appalling, so maddening, so unjust, so fucking stupid, I can only splutter. And unfortunately, I can't help that poor young woman. If she can't stand up to her parents and grab hold of her own life, she's not going to have one to life. I couldn't even get into making suggestions for how she should deal with her parents, but man, I wish I could have. But really, I just want to metaphorically beat some sense into those idiot parents.

And the worst part of it is, I bet there are thousands of parents just like that out there. I ... I can't figure out what to say.

Whew.

Shifting gears again, today's 101 was, as usual, lively and interesting. I did get that huge wodge of stuff back to them today--and did it while still going to Advisement--but I collected only half of their homework: the most important part for me to mark and get back to them. I asked them to keep the other half, as I just can't add anything more to the stacks of shit I have in hand. I've put way more in my wheelie pack than I can realistically hope to get through this weekend, so I suspect I'm going to have to call in "sick" to Advisement at least one day next week. But we'll see how it goes.

Right now, I'm falling over tired--despite having gotten a pretty good night's sleep last night (and waking up spontaneously before the alarm)--so I'm going to water the plants and trundle off into the weekend with bag and baggage.