In My Empire...

... No Means No.

[I can (unfortunately) sense a series of post fitting this new "In My Empire" category since more and more things seem to confirm that, somehow, I'm the Empress of Mars]

So... Here's what happened at work.

This time, it's the "student" variety that floored me.

Last year, I had one group that was making me think that I was teaching banshees at some nursery school level. They were exhausting, and I spent too much time reminding them to behave properly (they're not children; I teach in college, and they're all at least 18).

And so, there was that student who kept being disruptive (I believe in convincing people to behave, not tossing them out, but I may have to reconsider with the new generation of gremlins students), and who never, ever did what I asked.

Six months ago, the student tried to convince me to reconsider and give a passing grade. Thinking, "when pigs fly and when plonkers ice-skate in Hell", I told the school that the student should be invited to take another class to catch up; I don't know what the school did tell the student, but that silly bunny still has one unit missing.

Over the years, I've seen all sorts of nuttiness when desperate students wanted to be given the units they hadn't passed with me (in my very first year of teaching, one male student made it clear that he'd do anything to pass - even if that involved some horizontal tango. I made it clear that he had to write another paper on the assigned topic - and YUCK! *shudders*). I've seen students beg or even cry.

This one... Brand new variety... Part mutant student, part arrogant plonker, part hopeless silly bunny.

Honestly... Sit down on something comfy, and don't slide off your chairs.

The student would like me to tell the administration that I've made a mistake. ME!

I don't understand people who don't face their mistakes and try to blame others. This person, as it is, has done nothing to deserve getting that unit, and I'm not going to cave.

Apparently, I'll have to go ask my colleagues in the offices if we're still on the same wave-length about our "parenting" policies with the students. I'm not their mum (Merlin be praised! If they were mine, either I'd spank them so hard that they wouldn't be able to sit until 2032 or I'd shoot myself), but I'll keep giving them good examples, and I'll keep the same rules so they have some stability.

More and more, I see people (not only at work) saying (for anything, and everything), 'Oh, but that's not really important. Let's bend the rules.'

It's probably my mild OCD that's giving me an allergy to that kind of laziness...

Now I'll have to trek to another building to see the reaction of the administration staff (yes, I want to be in front of them to gauge their reactions), and that waste of time is making me angrier.

PS: as I was typing my brand new "Empress_of_Mars" label, I thought of the series Bones and its "King of the lab!". 

Empress of Mars! ^_~