Posted on 10/24/2014 8:09:13 AM PDT by Kaslin
Dear Kyle F. Student (not real name):
I am in receipt of your email request for extra credit. First of all, I would like to thank you for writing to ask for extra credit rather than wasting precious class time with your request. This will also spare you from being humiliated in front of your peers. Unfortunately, though, it will probably result in your being humiliated in front of numerous members of our community - some of whom will probably be members of our university community as well. Please allow me to explain.
Your extra credit assignment will be completed in five basic steps. In order to get full credit, you must complete each one of the following steps in order:
1. Buy a cardboard box and tear off a square piece approximately 12 inches wide and eight inches tall.
2. Purchase one black magic marker.
3. Using the black magic marker, write the following words on the piece of cardboard
ABLE-BODIED MAN REFUSES TO WORK
PLEASE GIVE ME SOMETHING I DID NOT EARN
4. Go to the Walmart on Market Street and College Road and hold up the sign at the entrance to the parking lot. Just blend right in with all the able-bodied men who are holding up signs begging for money instead of working. Stay there for approximately one hour.
5. Go home and write a 500 word description of what it felt like to ask people who work for a living to give you something you did not earn. I am especially interested in how it felt for you as a man to beg from women - especially those with small children in need of cheap food and modest clothing. Share your feelings with me, Kyle. And don’t hold back one bit. Pretend like you’re writing a Women’s Studies paper.
I predict that your reaction to this little assignment will take one of two forms. Each reaction requires a separate course of action and, therefore, must be discussed separately.
This would not be terribly surprising to me given your behavior this semester. Recall that you once asked the following question during a test review session: “Dr. Adams, what particular cases should we focus on (emphasis mine) as we prepare for the next exam?” In other words, you actually asked me which cases would be on the exam so that you could just read those – as opposed to all the cases you were assigned this semester.
Also, recall that after I specifically told you not to disclose personal medical information to me you came into my office and announced that you were “bi-polar.” In fact, you began your sentence by saying “I know we’re not supposed to tell you this, but …”
In other words, you seem to be more than just comfortable trying to get special treatment by making people feel sorry for you. In fact, you seem to feel entitled to beg for sympathy. And you would not do it unless you thought you could get something in the process.
In short, if you decide that you feel comfortable hanging out at Walmart with the other beggars then I would suggest that you drop out of college immediately. You don’t need a degree to hold a sign and look pathetic. Save yourself the debt, Kyle.
In fact, you might feel rightfully ashamed – knowing that you are able-bodied and can do much better with your God-given potential.
If your reaction is indeed one of shame then congratulations! The good news is that you will have earned ten points on your final average. The bad news is that it will have to be credited towards the ten points I just deducted from your average for asking me to give you something you did not earn.
Put simply, Kyle, there are two types of men in this world. There are those who spend their lives begging for things they don’t deserve. And then there are the rest of us who spend our lives working to subsidize their dependency. You simply need to decide what kind of man you are going to be.
Good luck on your assignment, Kyle. I look forward to reading your paper.
It is not? You know "Kyle"?
good for you and for your students.
Tell them right up front. "No extra credit, no second chances for bad work - it wouldn't be fair to those who did it right the first time. It wouldn't be justice. If you do not pay attention and do the work, you'll fail."
If it really is delivered in a mean-spirited way into the face of another; but this is a fictional student who has behaved in an exasperating fashion. No need to be a Holy Christian martyr when writing ironically about it as a help to the many students who read his columns and consider signing up for his courses and who might be tempted to use lame excuses after slacking off all semester. No one is forcing students to study with Adams; they register for his courses. He is not teaching required basic courses for the entire student body -- he is teaching majors in criminal justice. Justice on earth involves consequences for one's choices, no matter how much Christian forgiveness may be sought or felt. A repentant murderer is forgiven by God, but must still go to prison on earth.
No I don’t. But, at worst, he may be the equivalent of one of those squeegee guys who washes somebody’s car window in return for pocket change. A lowlife, probably, but still a step above those just asking for handouts for doing nothing.
University students are adults. Their parents get to pay for their education, but do not get to sue on their behalf. This piece of Adams' writing is satire, like about 90% of the rest of his writing.
Apparently this is a student who has failed to do his work properly all semester sand wants “extra credit” to get a barely passing grade. In a Criminal Justice class. From the description the injustice would be “Kyle” passing.
in the context of his lawsuit, he was denied tenure even though many others received it (and the pay raise it brings) who had fewer students, fewer favorable evaluations, fewer publications, and less well-subscribed classes. The denial was based on specific points culled from his writings that showed his conservative point of view. So his suit was about tenure only in the context of fighting the obvious point-of-view discrimination against a conservative. It was a important victory for our side.
There’s a marked difference between students who worked hard and are seeking grade improvement insofar as their results were insufficient, vs. students who just didn’t do the work and are looking for a quick way to pass (as opposed to learn).
Seems the “Kyle” above was the latter; this was explained in the OP.
When a student is the former, the instructor will often go to great lengths to accommodate (for one, I assigned “explain why the wrong (multiple-choice) answers on the final exam are in fact wrong” - and graded it whilst my wife was in labor).
If I recall correctly, Dr. Adams admits that in decades past, he was a drunken, no-good layabout.
He subsequently came to realize there was no future in that course of behavior, and changed.
“The student, “Kyle”, did not ask for extra points. He asked for extra credit. That’s sort of like asked your boss for extra hours.”
The article notes that it’s sort of like asked your boss for extra hours (paid, of course) after loafing for most of the week/month. (Yes, a lot of people do that.)
And miss a great opportunity to teach a life lesson about slacking (and abusing shortcuts to just get by)?
In particular, read about “Virginia Rester” here:
http://townhall.com/columnists/mikeadams/2014/10/16/ten-at-fifty-part-ii-n1905651/page/2
Instructor noted that it wasn’t “bending the rules to accommodate”, it was that the kid is [ab]using the diagnosis to his advantage instead of learning the material.
I have no doubt that discrimination took place against him because of his conservative views. My sense is that was the reason tenure has always been argued for in academic circles. Now, it’s extraordinary that he had to fight to prove his bonafides, and that the security of tenure was what was being withheld from him because the establishment did not want him to have the security of tenure and did want to censure his views. I’m glad he overcame. However, I’m also glad that he now has the security of tenure which originally was designed to protect those who had unpopular views.
I’m quite sure that if his retention of tenure becomes based on ‘evaluations’ from his administrators that he will soon be out on his ear. They will make the evaluations unfair.
Well, of course. My stated opinion is in reference to the incident discussed on the article. I strongly object to Adams' behavior in that case.
he intended it -- as a metaphor for discussing a certain type of student
Now that would be of some value, if "Kyle" did not actually exist, and the whole thing was some sort of morality play.
I was trained as a chemist, trained to be coldly analytical. I often take things literally, unless it's carefully spelled out otherwise!
>> Some folks rank moralizing above everything that makes God who He is.
True, and I place you square in the middle of that cohort of folks.
You have obviously never read any of Mike Adam’s columns. Many are satire, he is pro-live and he does like homos
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