Mea culpa?

One more day. Find it in your heart to stay. Yeah, this Glenn Lewis song that came out a full year or two ago is being played out in my room like it was released yesterday. Something about it just really makes me want to go out and do something...BIG.

Exculpability is an important concept when dealing with the dealings of others. As a teaching assistant, I have a certain level of responsibility for the success of students. Or at least I believe I do. Others may agree to disagree. Either way, one student consistently tells me I "let him down." The very thought of someone saying that about that class is preposterous to me. I've done really everything in my power to help those people pass and make the grades that they need to make. Up to a certain point, it's out of my hands. Not only does the class persist in failing to ask for my help, they persist in not doing the work, and not acknowledging that they need help. At one point, I started a witchhunt campaign for those "unlearned in Fortran who were enrolled in Fortran." I found a few people who seemed to be relieved that I came searching for them.

Others saw it as a crutch. This has been on my mind lately in seeing how various people in the class talk to me and how much of the class is doing poorly, although on the last test grades were much better. Finals time is coming up soon and I know I could very well be swamped with last minute help requests. I'll be prepared to answer them. But, at what price? I know I get paid for this, but it was supposed to be a labor of love--as in...I was just doing it because I wanted to help people learn to program.

Back to basics.

So, I've gotten back up with my two of my best buddies of all time, Kim and Ebony. Looks as if things are going pretty nicely for them; they'll be graduating next year!