Why I need to get away in my TC - ASAP! for fun

[delosholly]

I know this is not directly related to Truck Camping, but I hope you find it a little bit entertaining (or perhaps scary).

I am a librarian and teach some at a small university. I received this email today from one of my students:

"Will my grade improve overall if I do better on the next assignments?"

I wanted to respond with: No, the better you do on assignments, the lower your grade will be.

Remember, these are the people who will be in charge someday !!

Have a good weekend.

[nomadictxn]

I am in my mid 50s and supervise quite a few 20 somethings and am amazed at the intelligence of some of these kids. You have the usual %age of knuckleheads but I do not feel that we are doomed. Just my opinion.

[rickeoni]

WVbassmistress wrote:
At the risk of sounding like my Dad...we are doomed.

At some point in the last year I became my dad!

[GeoBoy]

Remember when a child comes into this world they are a blank sheet of paper. What they become as a person is a DIRECT reflection of their parents and society. I truely believe that a lack of structure and discipline has produced this and other generations.

[path1]

You could really help this guy to get on the right footing, before he is in his 30's or 40's wondering the streets aimlessly. Take him camping with you and explain (and I really mean this in a helping kind of way). And I know school means a lot to most people, but others, it is just not helping one bit. But many people don't realize it till years later. Some people just don't belong in school. For many it is not the best institution to "grow" your future. Found that out all by myself and I'm so slow even that took me 2 semesters. Pick a trade you like and in demand and enjoy and become the very best at it you possibly can. You'll be richly rewarded monetarily and even more so in life and happiness. Your "smart" friends that keep going to school that become science teachers, micro biologists, coroners, collage counselors, mental health counselors, etc and all with at least Masters degrees and several with PHD's will respect you greatly. They'll appreciate and envy you for making and controlling your own future. They'll tell you how their profession is messed up and out of their control, and can't do anything about it.

[GoinThisAway]

Ha, ha! Funny one. But I'll bet we asked some not-so-smart questions back when we were that age too. So there's probably still some hope for him/her. We got smarter ... or did we?

[54suds]

sounds like your student is the fine example of the fruit of our liberal progressive education system :h

[naturist]

I guess students these days have really gone downhill.

[Tiger4x4RV]

I am now retired after over 50 years of working in college libraries. For the first 20 years I did support staff work at various levels, then for 30 years (after grad school) I was a reference librarian and instructor.

Librarians get what comes to us. We have to treat each patron with respect and to be nice. But... The idiots. The demanding do-it-for-me and do-it-now folks. The ones who argue with the references we locate. Fortunately there were enough nice and reasonable patrons to keep me coming back. And fellow library workers to vent to in the break room.

The RV was parked at home and weekends to wide-open places were my escape. No phones, no patrons, no e-mails. Yay!

[Artum_Snowbird]

Respond with a positive twist. Perhaps give them instructions on what it would take to reach the highest level and what areas of their presentations need the most improvement and how to improve the sections of their presentations most effectively.

Yes, it was a dumb question, but a clever answer might just inspire a better attempt from now on.

[toedtoes]

On the other hand, I remember classes in which if I had a C at midterm, there was no chance of my improving the grade - even if I got 100 on the final.

I had another class which graded based on simply meeting certain criteria: you do x, y, z and m, you get an A; you do x, y, and z, you get a B; and so on. There was no "do better on the rest of your assignments and get a better grade.

So, the question isn't necessarily as dumb as it appears on the cover. And at least the student ASKED before the end of the year - giving them time to actually accomplish the goal.

[sdianel_-acct_c]

Sadly some students today feel entitled to get good grades without the hard work. Afraid we have created a generation of entitlement.

[Trackrig]

And then when he does get a job,
he'll show up 15 minutes late every day
he'll then take 15 - 20 minutes going to make oatmeal - no time to eat at home
then he'll check his private emails for a while
he may work for a little while because he's board
about 10:30 he'll step out for a few minutes to buy a coffee
about 11:00 he gets back and calls people to see who to go to lunch with - may then work in a rush until lunch because of a deadline after lunch.
at 11:45 he leaves for lunch - been a tough morning
comes back about 1:30, works like mad
goes to a meeting at 2:00 that he isn't prepared for
after the meeting ends at 3:00, goes for another coffee
works until about 4:30 and then messes around until he thinks he can skip out without anyone noticing
5:00 meets with his friends at a bar talking abut why no one at work takes him seriously and he got a poor performance review because no one likes him.
at midnight he goes to bed
at 7:30 he wakes up with a hangover.


It's so nice to be gone from all of that.

Bill

[WyoTraveler]

Sounds like your student needs some math lessons in grade averaging. :h

Back to the TC though. When I was in the working world I loved my TC. Living in So Ca the TC was ready all the time to just take off and go. Just to escape the crazy world for a day or two. No need to pack or hook up. Just go.

[azrving]

Be very nice in your response to the student as you would not want to hurt their feelings. Word it very carefully so you don't get sued. Remember we are all the same so put the trophy and report cards away.