Saturday, April 14, 2007

A Festival of Tears

Exam time and here we go again. The box of Kleenex is strategically positioned on my desk and following me from the lecture hall after the exam is a train of students who believe that by crying in my office it will make things better. I of course am the perfect target, because their tears make me feel like the wicked witch from the west and I wonder if I should make my exams easier. I have been feeling guilty all weekend and my exam has ruined my students' as well as my weekend.


My colleagues don't seem to be blessed with so many tears in their offices. I wonder if there is something about me that encourages this, if it is the nature of the class, or the inviting box of Kleenex. The advice I have been given is to simply let them cry until the fountains have seized. That still doesn't make me feel better.

1 comment:

Twice said...

Barely Tenured has a post on crying students too. Must be that time of the semester.