Hallelujah

I'm totally with this RYS post:

Not all students act horribly...and it's those students I worry most about. When Paula Plagiarist gets a C because she whined to a faculty-hating administrator about her F, what does that do to Marvin Mediocre who actually earned his C by performing with a basic level of competency? When Big-Mouth Barry bombs a class, bitches his way through a grade grievance and is awarded a C just to go away, what does that do to Sally the C-Student, who had some health problems and earned a C because she came to the final exam with a sinus infection?

I love (platonically, you understand!) the student that works and deserves the grade they get, even if they're not the most academically gifted (there's a real thrill in working with the student who suddenly "gets it" after some hard graft). I do my damnedest, & consider it my job, to make sure that they all get the grade they deserve, including

• Whining William and his endless set of excuses,
• Cheating Charlene and her group of plagiarists who paid "some bloke off the internet" to do their project,
• Loophole Larry who thinks that exerting effort getting around the regulations is academically-equivalent to doing the work,
• Mike the Muppet whose idea of catching-up after a prolonged (genuine, mit. circ. style) absence is to copy a pile of work off the internet etc.

If you're not one of these (or those listed on RYS) then make sure you take advantage of the opportunities we try to provide -- I hope I'll never turn away a deserving student (not permanently, anyway: we are all busy people, after all...)