Classes Begin

Each semester I begin teaching my classes with feelings of extreme trepidation. I'm not sure if it is a community-college problem, or a generational problem, or something else entirely, but students these days say and do the most unfathomable things. Seriously. I am continually amazed, horrified and astounded by these things. Sometimes it makes me laugh, other times I want to weep or pound my head against a wall in frustration. Classes began 5 days ago, here is a short list of things that have happened so far....

* When asked what time period or place in history that they are most interested in, one students wrote: "I love the 1930s because of the Salem Witch Trials." Really? What Salem Witch Trials is she talking about? The only ones I know of occurred in the 1690s. Well done.

* One student when writing about the witch craze in Europe repeatedly stated that certain things were not "except able."

* Another student sent me an email stating that "[she] must insist" that she be given a full week to turn in her assignment instead of the 5 days given. Well, I must insist that she accept she has entered my world now and in my world she is at the level of plebian at best. Making demands will get you nowhere my friend. You have officially been shortlisted to those that I will likely never go out of my way to accommodate. Congratulations, 5 days down, 7 weeks to go.

* And finally, a student completely plagiarized his first assignment by cutting and pasting a portion from a website into a Word Document and submitting it as his own words. How did I know? He wrote, "Strict definitions of gender roles involving acceptable social standards for women, coupled with long held notions of female susceptibility to temptation led to the craze. Although witchcraft had been identified as an evil long before this time, the religious conflicts caused by the Reformation in some ways redefined the relationship between the sacred and the profane." Nice try.
(Disclaimer: original author is Michael Streich, "The Witch Craze in Sixteenth Century Europe").

Stay tuned for more from my bizarre world of teaching college students.