November 19, 2009

No Sympathy

Last week, I had a student miss both of my classes. Out with the swine flu, she kept in almost constant contact with me, updating me as to when she thought she'd be able to come back, asking questions about upcoming assignments and doing her best to avoid falling behind.

After getting the approval to come back to class, she sat in my class on Tuesday and looked awful. Her cough sounded even worse than she looked. I asked her if she was ok and she blurted out, "no." You could tell she felt lousy. She still showed up with a partial annotated bibliography in hand, just to make sure she was doing it correctly.

Last night, I got an email from her saying she had been sent to the hospital after Health Services listened to her lungs. She has pneumonia. I didn't expect to see her. We made arrangements via email for her to get her work done.

Today, she showed up at class. As I was walking in I saw her and stopped in my tracks. "What are you doing here? Are you feeling better?"

She looked awful. Once again, she blurted out, "no." She then went on to tell me that since she's no longer contagious, she couldn't get an excused absense from the university. So there she was at 7:55 a.m. ready to attend class.

I sent her back to her dorm to rest.

When I have students like this, so dedicated to their work and their grades, it makes it particularly difficult for me to have any sympathy for those who take regular "personal days." Those students should know that the day of reckoning is quickly approaching. Only three classes remain, and they are in serious trouble.

I am also in serious trouble in my fantasy leagues. If you'd like to read about it, go here.