Carl, who had umpteen years of French in high school and yet is taking my first semester course, had some trouble procuring a book at the beginning of the term. After 3 weeks I told him too bad, his participation grade would reflect every day he was bookless, he'd had plenty of time to get his finances in order and get one on Amazon or wherever if our bookstores didn't have any yet, adding that at the very least he needed to borrow one from someone and do some illegal xeroxing. All I asked was that he have the requisite materials in front of him in class.
blah blah blah no money blah blah my dad can't send more til blah blah blah blah waiting for more blah blah blah as soon as possible blah blah
I said I would excuse it with a letter from a parent attesting to lack of funds but FOR SOME REASON he didn't go for that (hmmm... could it be he used all his book money on video games or something?...) and instead wanted to borrow my book for xeroxing.
Now I used to readily agree to this with students but in the last couple of years I've decided that it's not fair to those who get their materials on time. Nor is it my job to procure course materials for students. So I refused and suggested that he grab someone from class, offer them a coffee or something for the favor of borrowing their book, whatever.
No word from Carl on this topic since Jan. 28, tho I have systematically been subtracting a participation point every day that he hasn't had his text with him (read: all of them).
Today after class he comes up and says: "It's still going to be a while on my book."
I said: "Oh."
Carl - dead stare of disbelief at my apathy.
I talk myself into at least communicating further... "Listen, Carl, you have to at least have pages in front of you. I've told you this before. Xerox from someone or whatever but you have to have course materials with you in class.
Carl: "Well can't I come xerox from yours during office hours?"
Me: "This has been asked and answered, Carl. I told you at the beginning of the semester. No, you cannot copy from my book. You know plenty of people in the class now. Grab James or someone and ask to borrow their book; offer them a coffee or something. Just get pages. Meanwhile you're losing participation points every single day. It's up to you."
Geemony fricking christmas it's not my fucking job to get you your asswipe course materials! You made it this far w/o a book, if I were you I'd just write it off - you think you know so fucking much French anyway that you don't even need to pay attention in class (on top of not having a book) so why the attack of conscience today? If it's no more important than that to you, why should I provide my book for your convenience?
Apparently wherever he had his umpteen years of French before they didn't use books. Come to think of it he's a computer engineering major and usually he doesn't even have a notebook in front of him (and often has to borrow paper from someone on compo day) so he's probably completely anti-hard-copy-anything.
Oh! I just had a thought - he mentioned perhaps knowing how to fix my crazy footer problem on the last test; I could put him to work on that and offer the book pages as a carrot...
Nahhh. Firstly I think it was just his ego talking (people are always thinking they can solve my footer mystery; greater minds than his have tried and failed) and secondly I care more about his getting the book pages on his own than fixing my footer.
arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrgh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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