the "things you wish you could say" thread

[hmaria1609]

I don't wanna work Saturdays!  I like weekdays only.

[mamselle]

Something I just said but never thought I'd have to say....(to a 12-year old music student with some ADHD issues)....

"Could you please wait until you're off-screen to scratch yourself?"

(His mother overheard and started howling with laughter...)

M. 

[FishProf]

Student you need to learn to self-soothe.   The mystery of why your grade is going down when you do well on a quiz is not life or death.  Sending me panicked emails in the evening and demanding I help you RIGHT NOW?  Not gonna help.

I guarantee a response w/in 24 hours, and in good customer service mode, you are gonna get the full 24-hours.

I am not your binky.  Stop it.

[mamselle]

Student you need to learn to self-soothe....I am not your binky. 

Stashing this idea away for if it's ever necessary.

Could be useful sometime.

M.

[smallcleanrat]

Student you need to learn to self-soothe.   The mystery of why your grade is going down when you do well on a quiz is not life or death.  Sending me panicked emails in the evening and demanding I help you RIGHT NOW?  Not gonna help.

I guarantee a response w/in 24 hours, and in good customer service mode, you are gonna get the full 24-hours.

I am not your binky.  Stop it.

Would you ever include a professionally-worded message like this in your reply to a student? Something about the inappropriateness of using demanding language towards your professor?

I had an undergrad asking me to vouch for his presence in office hours so he could get an excused absence for another class. But he waited until six weeks after the fact to make the request. I told him I wouldn't do it, because I didn't remember him being there; it wouldn't be honest. He sent me a snooty reply expressing disappointment in my "lack of organization" and told me my failure to take attendance during office hours was negligent. I sent him a politely worded version of "Why the &?$! would I take attendance during optional office hours? I don't know a single TA or Prof who does this. Next time don't wait so long to submit a request like this and you might have better luck."

Pretty sure he was lying anyway, because I did write down what questions students asked in office hours and my memory could match specific faces to each question. His wasn't one of them. Maybe waiting six weeks was a strategy, and he hoped I would give him the benefit of the doubt.

[wareagle]

Look, I know your job is to keep enrollments up.  But that does not mean doing everything we can to keep a student enrolled.  Sometimes telling a student it is okay to drop out of college for awhile is the kindest thing we can do.

Remember, it's about the student.  Not about the institution.

[apl68]

I don't wanna work Saturdays!  I like weekdays only.

You sound like our weekend staff.  Very long faces when the Board of Trustees told us to go back to our full six-day-a-week schedule, after months of M-F only due to the pandemic. 

[FishProf]

Student you need to learn to self-soothe.   The mystery of why your grade is going down when you do well on a quiz is not life or death.  Sending me panicked emails in the evening and demanding I help you RIGHT NOW?  Not gonna help.

I guarantee a response w/in 24 hours, and in good customer service mode, you are gonna get the full 24-hours.

I am not your binky.  Stop it.

Would you ever include a professionally-worded message like this in your reply to a student? Something about the inappropriateness of using demanding language towards your professor?

I might if the student were receptive to feedback.  In my experience, that receptivity is inversely proportional to need.  I suspect they've been conditioned by earlier education to expect that is a winning strategy.

[hmaria1609]

You sound like our weekend staff.  Very long faces when the Board of Trustees told us to go back to our full six-day-a-week schedule, after months of M-F only due to the pandemic.

We've been used to weekdays only since June so having Saturdays return isn't going over well. I'll be coming with a cuppa of a something for Saturday mornings.

[apl68]

You sound like our weekend staff.  Very long faces when the Board of Trustees told us to go back to our full six-day-a-week schedule, after months of M-F only due to the pandemic.

We've been used to weekdays only since June so having Saturdays return isn't going over well. I'll be coming with a cuppa of a something for Saturday mornings.

I never stopped coming in on Saturday mornings (Force of habit--I'm used to coming in six days a week, and usually at least passing by to see if everything looks okay on Sundays).  Judging from the number of phone calls we kept getting, the demand for Saturday services remained during the months when we didn't offer them.

[science.expat]

What kind of jobs are you in that you're working on Saturdays? Before someone trolls, I'm asking in the context of this being an academic fora.

[apl68]

What kind of jobs are you in that you're working on Saturdays? Before someone trolls, I'm asking in the context of this being an academic fora.

We're librarians.  Public and academic libraries are usually open on Saturdays.  I'm the director of a public library, and expected to be there at least part of the day every day we're open.  Plus I'm on call 24/7 in case an alarm goes off at the library.  We had one of our periodic false alarms for no apparent reason just last night.  At least it was before I went to bed, not around 3 a.m. like usual.

[Vkw10]

What kind of jobs are you in that you're working on Saturdays? Before someone trolls, I'm asking in the context of this being an academic fora.

I've taught at two universities that had a substantial number of courses scheduled for returning adults, including nights and weekends. At my current university, the professional programs teach about half their classes after 4:00 p.m. or on Saturday. Many departments offer a service course and an elective in the evenings or on Saturday, too. My department expects every full-time faculty to teach an evening or Saturday class at least once every other year, because those classes always fill.

[science.expat]

Interesting. Thanks.

[polly_mer]

<unrelated to working Saturdays>

Either you are not up on your reading or you are just too ignorant to be a good elected official.

Not one person called for ignoring the experts or ignoring the science.  Instead, you are exposing your ignorance by not knowing who the experts are.  The local newspaper had a front page article just last week about how the biggest employer in the area has the national/international experts in this subject matter who are providing the good science for the public officials (state, federal, and others as requested) along with explanations of analysis, error, and uncertainty quantification.

Thus, to dismiss those same experts submitting a written, formal report for our town in their area of expertise as it relates to our community and our families in favor of the "state experts" means you have missed the boat by so much that you can't even see the boat over the horizon.  It also means that you don't know what the "state experts" are on record as saying or what the current guidance/rules/laws in this matter are.

Perhaps you don't know that scientists who do research that really matters to the normal people, especially right now, are also often parents, grandparents, and active community members.  Taking into account the loudest voices instead of the most informed voices is a mistake that will cost this community dearly...or at least it would if most people were stupid enough to believe you know best.  Expect that big wave of people opting out of the public option to continue and the next election to have a bunch of new faces because of how many consequential decisions were made wrong recently.