It’s Been One of Those Semesters – 1

Bitch-ee … Bitch-ee … Bitch-ee …

She could have been squealing “bitch you  … bitch you … bitch you …” – upset as she was about the rebuff of her third attempt to turn in a take-home exam whose deadline had long passed. But at the moment, I was hearing “… bitch-ee … bitch-ee … bitch-ee …”

Or maybe she was saying, “you, bitchin’ … you, bitchin’ … you, bitchin’ …” but the thick accent, her voice faltering as she neared tears, and, of course, her rage, made her comments an unintelligible high pitch squeal even though we were inches away from each other. Plus, being bitched added to the confusion of an instructor caught off guard on a campus where one needs to be diligent about being caught unawares.

A special exception, that’s what she wanted. She told this instructor the day that the assignment was due in class that she would email it to him that evening because she was unable to bring it with her. He received it the next day, however,. And promptly emailed her the rejection

It was the second time that she had missed an important assignment date and, as with the first miss, tried to convince this instructor to accept it and he declined.

Say what? best describes the instructor’s reaction. Usually, wise instructors are on alert for toe-to-toe discussion with affronting students or otherwise but “bitchee” or “bitch” or “bitchin’,” and the tears and the squealing as well as the incredulity that she was still asking for a special exception that she hadn’t earned and didn’t deserve caught this instructor off guard.

By the time he was on Hi Alert – microseconds – she fled.

There was a momentary effort to make her see the reasoning behind the decision – a mistake, that’s for sure. Experience says: Don’t try to reason  when they screw up because appealing to their reasoning only inspires them to be more unreasonable because they believe they can talk themselves into a better position, like the students who insist in front of their classmates that they should be given a special exception, regardless what the syllabus says and what has happened with earlier attempts by other students to get an exception they don’t deserve.

And then the crying, cursing, shouting and, now, bitch. Or bitchin’. Or bitc-hee.

She had flunked the first assignment because she showed up in class with a doctor’s note instead of the assignment. This ain’t high school, but of course, said thought was never uttered by this instructor – of course. She was told that her F could be reconsidered based on what she did with the second assignment. But: She didn’t bring the second assignment to class as she was suppose to but she assured the instrucgtor she would email it before midnight and he agreed.

And she didn’t.
And he didn’t.
And then she  …

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