first you have to be smarter than the syllabus

For once this is not about the stupidity of students but that of my colleagues. Or of one in particular... I edit the syllabi for our elementary classes. For each day's class plan, there are usually just one or two items, e.g.

Ch. 1, Tranche B, pp. 14-20
Quiz I
Homework due: Cahier pp. 3-8

NB: This is not prescribing any order to be followed in class, it is simply the default order in which I ended up entering all the components for each day.

Anyway a few weeks ago I wrote the other instructors asking them to weigh in on anything that needs to be changed on the syllabi for next semester. Patty is in my office and almost immediately gave me her input. Helga, our colleague - of a certain age, as we say in French - and often a tad obtuse, had yet to respond still when she finally stopped me in the hallway a couple of days ago quasi-frantic,

"Oh! I'm so glad I saw you - there was just one thing on the syllabus that needs to be edited."

Me, concerned, and glad, too, that the obviously important thing she had to share could be communicated so efficiently in person and added to my list of changes, "Oh, excellent, Helga! What is it?"

Helga answered, "I don't like giving the quizzes last so please change the order of the class events each day."

"Well you know that is just a list of what's going on, it is up to you to carry them out in whatever order you prefer."

Out of the question, apparently. Winging it even to this slight extent is simply not in her lexicon. We went back and forth several times and she would not let go of it. Does this mean she religiously only takes up the homework after everything else, too? But I guess maybe she doesn't mind that. So I'm changing the fucking order on the syll's for her only. It's ridiculous. She's been teaching for about a gazillion years. How scary to be so rigid after all that time. Or on the other hand, how natural perhaps. I admit it's ridiculous for it to bug me so much, too, and I should probably just be gracious about it and change them without griping. It's also ridiculous that this should surprise me since she has been like this on a few other things. All the more reason to rise above.

Or pretend to, and then make a snide blog entry about it :)

What would happen if I added on a few different days: "Mutual nosepicking" ?