4 December 2018: I've been thinking most of the day about a student who came to talk about her status in my class. I know this student has been struggling with "outside of class" stuff all semester long, but only today did she fully explain it all. What she's dealing with--not just classes, but a job, a new baby, and a very sick older child--is staggering. And she has been moving through the semester trying to do it all without telling us.
Some students will make every excuse in the book for failure to do the simplest things. Some will make a mountain out of a molehill and expect us to move heaven and earth to accommodate them. But then there are students like this one who are like icebergs: we sense something is going on, but they keep the whole truth hidden, not wanting to share with us or burden us. Or they think we think they are playing us.
"You all [professors] don't want to hear it. You probably hear it all the time. You don't want us to dump it on you," she said. This even after I repeatedly told her to let me know if I could help. Sometimes you just can't do anymore. They have to come to you on their own time. But I also think I could have tried a little harder.
No comments:
Post a Comment