Pressure Cooker
I have an upset student in my office now, in the throes of a nervous breakdown. He’d written down the wrong day for his final, in a course in which he’d had an A. I couldn’t get a hold of the professor, but did manage to catch the TA, who said: “yikes, um, he’s gonna have to talk to the professor, I have no say in that call.”
I suspect he’ll be fine – I know the professor in question and she’s not merciless. But it’s really hard to communicate that to him, especially since I can’t really give him a guarantee, and it is entirely the prerogative of the professor to let him take a make-up exam. Who knows, maybe she had outlined a strict policy regarding no make-up exams, whatsoever. There is the issue of fairness to the students who did make sure to show up on time.
I definitely feel for the student, though – especially since this very situation did happen to me. I once showed up for a final on the wrong week, since for some reason my biology lab course was having its finals a whole two weeks earlier than everyone else’s. Like this student, I had written my exam date wrong, and once you write down a date on paper, it becomes difficult to unwrite it from your head. Especially when you’re trying to cram all this other nonsense on top of it!
Two observations: first, I’m not really sure how to deal with distraught students, or people in general. Should I try to talk him down, hover around and annoy him into not feeling sad anymore? Second, I am sexist because I feel even more bad for boys who cry. I guess I just assume boys have a harder time crying in public, which is true. I do feel pretty awkward when anyone I don’t know cries in front of me, regardless of gender. I opted to just give him some TP to blow his nose, and let him hang out in our office for awhile to compose himself. Hope that was enough, and he’s not leaping into the Kaw right now!
EDIT: Professor emailed, said not to panic and that student could take the final. Student bacon officially saved. Yay!
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Comments
How stressful! That sounds like your typical nightmare scenario. (I used to have those dreams where you find out at the end of the semester that you’ve been signed up for a class but didn’t realize it and now need to ace the final.)
As for dealing with crying people, I don’t know! I think what you did (since this isn’t a friend of yours) sounds pretty good – sympathetic, but not getting too involved. It probably would have been weird/embarrassing/annoying for him if you’d tried to comfort him!
Posted by: seadragon | May 15th, 2009 08:22