I’ll Eat that Crow and Like It
I received an email a couple of days ago from a student I had over the summer. Great guy, but he made the mistake of taking precalculus as a first semester freshman and then taking calculus as a third semester senior. He tried incredibly hard, but didn’t quite get what he needed to graduate in the summer. I felt horrible. I know that I shouldn’t, after all the students earn their grades. But I’m still the guy that had to type the letter next to his name that would require him to come back again (and shell out a bunch of money) to take the class over again. What’s worse is he’s really my kind of guy. He works at a club in mobile where GWAR played recently. It seems like the club (the Soul Kitchen) is not unlike the Somber Reptile where Round Ear Spock played frequently. Never-the-less, he didn’t quite pass and had to come back. There are two sections of Calculus being offered now and he requested that he be put in my section. That makes me feel much better. Now I need to convince him that he still needs to study hard even though he has taken the class before. Sometimes it helps students to point out to them that while they did take the course before, they didn’t get much out of it and as a consequence will likely need to study more than most. Or as Dr. Cain once put it when a student told him that he had taken a class already, “The third time’s the charm.”
On an unrelated note, it is incredibly difficult to remain grumpy when there is a little baby laughing her head off and reaching for you to get a hug. Every morning I get up at 5:00(ish) because Scout woke up. Every morning I’m pissed off about it. Every morning I realize (again) that she’s just excited to start another day and see her father. Every morning for breakfast I eat crow and I love it.
This must be the semester for returning flunkees. The woman who was in my class last semester and I flunked for plagarism signed up for my class (a different one) again this semester—and she brought a friend! Weird. For the first few days I kept waiting for her to realize that she was staring at the same teacher who flunked her and run screaming from the room. Never happened. I’m pleased, but a bit confused.
I know what you mean about the little smiling faces. Just as you are about to pull your hair out and have answered the “Why, Mommy?” question for the umpteenth-billionth time in one day, Austin will say something that just really gets me. The other day he was in one of those moods where I was sure he was looking for things to do to get in trouble. To get everyone out of the house, I suggested that we all go out to dinner. Austin said, “No! I want to stay home.” Just before I lost it, I asked him why. He said, “Because your food always tastes better.” Needless to say I wandered into the kitchen and started cooking.
In other news, Grant is officially crawling as of this morning! He has finally figured out how to get his legs coordinated with his arms. We are frantically scooping up things off the floor and putting them higher. To balance out that high, he came down with pink eye. And I think Austin is getting an ear infection. Tomorrow is shaping up to be a blast. Can you have a beer with breakfast when you are 35? How sick do you think I would be?
By the way, CONGRATS to Drake! Another great milestone. I thought about you guys as Austin and I hung out in the Target bathroom this afternoon. We got half-way through our shopping and he announced in his quiet, little voice that, “I have to go poopie and pee, Mom. But I can hold it until we get to the bathroom.” Great. Then while we were in there he kept a running commentary on the output including speed, quantity, frequency, aroma, and even viscosity. I’m sure everyone in the bathroom was pleased to be so well informed. I wish I had a nickel for every time I was caught in a public restroom discussing the digestive system and its waste with a certain little guy. And believe me, he knows the whole system—in detail.