There is a difference. I just got a phone call from one of my students who stopped coming to lab in the middle of the semester. He was one of the students who was doing well on all the quizzes and definitely understood the material, he even did pretty well on the exams. But if you don't get at least 70% of the lab points you cannot pass this class.
I didn't really know why he was missing the labs, but I really should have investigated more thoroughly. From the conversation we just had it turns out his mother has some form of terminal cancer and is trying to go through chemotherapy but hospitals are denying their insurance claims. Since his father isn't able to handle the bureaucratic work of dealing with hospitals and insurance, K.A. has been going to Dallas every weekend to spend time with his mother and try and get everything sorted out. Lab is on Mondays at 8AM and he just started missing it. After missing about four of the labs, it's impossible for him to pass and impossible for him to move on without passing this physics course.
He emailed roughly 2 weeks ago about his lab grade at which point I directed him to the professor of the class to discuss anything we could do. 2 weeks ago was already much too late to do anything. If I had been a bit proactive with my students I could have contacted him the 2nd lab he missed and had him move to a section later in the week to do his labs. I know that I cannot be held responsible for making my students get to class and pass everything, but I don't care whether I can directly be held responsible for it. I know I should have done better. This whole situation makes me feel so self-centered, because here I am worrying about my near perfect life and here's a kid who's worrying about his Mom dying on the weekends. That was basically a phonecall from G-d, my conscience, or who knows what. It's divine intervention, surely.
Yours truly.
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1 comment:
wow.
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