Ranting about Students: Part 2

In my last post, I ranted about students and their seeming problems with time. This issue doesn’t stop with them being unable (or unwilling) to turn their work in by the due date. Sometimes they simply don’t have the time to come to class prepared (i.e. having done the work required in order to participate). And sometimes they simply don’t have the time to come to class at all.

Students only have a few hours of class a week (generally 8 or so in my literature department). That leaves plenty of time for partying (and, ideally, for doing work), but I guess the remaining 160 hours are just not enough, so students feel the need to skip class as well.

Obviously, if someone is truly sick, he or she should not come to class. But I’ve had students claim to be sick and then, just a few hours later, I see them drinking and dancing at the pub on campus. They can’t have been too sick in that case, so clearly they just didn’t feel like spending an hour or two in class.

--Curly

Ranting about Students: Part 1

As a university lecturer, I experience peeves very frequently, perhaps more frequently than I ought to. In the next few posts, I’ll explore a few of the ones related to my students.

A big annoyance is students not turning work in on time. In two of my classes, the students had a weekly assignment. It was always due on the same day of the week, at the same time, and in the same location. And yet, over and over again, I was getting assignments late (sometimes even an entire day late) and in the wrong place (by email, for example, or slipped under my door versus put into my pigeon hole). How many times did I have to remind them about the due date?

And what about essays and other larger assignments that they have been informed about weeks, even months, in advance? Students might complain they didn’t know about the assignments (even if they were listed on the syllabus) or that they couldn’t find a printer or that they couldn’t get access to the materials they needed. All of these excuses are, frankly, unacceptable. Maybe I sound overly strict, but I do think that if the students have been informed about due dates in advance, they should find a way of managing to get the work in on time.

--Curly

Big Women with Little Voices

What’s with grown-up women who purposefully speak with high-pitched voices? Do they think it makes them sound sweeter, cuter, more vulnerable, more innocent, more girlish, whatever? And, if so, why’s that appealing?

I’ve heard quite a few women who seem to choose to talk in girlish tones, particularly when men are around, that are clearly not their natural voices. And I just don’t get it. It seems to be an attempt to attract men, by making the women seem reedy and needy.

--Curly

Information, Please

Well, back to matters related to writing and publishing...

I'm pretty picky about the writing contests I enter. But unfortunately, it's difficult to know beforehand how a journal, publisher, or organization is going to (mis)handle one key aspect of contest management: notification of contest results.

It really peeves me when I find out the results of a competition only when the organizer deigns to mention them on a blog--and only because I regularly check that blog. This is, in fact, how, just today, I discovered the outcome of a competition to which I submitted my work (and an entry fee) more than four months ago. Apparently, the results were made public online about a week ago.

Never mind that the organizers have my e-mail address (entries and fees were submitted online). Never mind that, when the organizers recently posted an announcement on a discussion board calling for submissions to ANOTHER of their contests, I wrote to inquire about this one (no one replied). It's irritating that they couldn't be bothered to let me know when to expect an announcement, let alone to inform me of the results directly.

I assure you that this is not a matter of sour grapes. Sure, I'd be happier if I'd won or placed in the contest that sparked this particular post. But one thing is certain: I will never submit to these organizers' contests again.

--Prunella Peeve

Phallophobia

I’ve just spent two posts complaining about penises, and that brings me to another rant: the idea that all feminists are boring, cranky, man-haters. I am a feminist (and I can’t understand why anyone wouldn’t be, since feminism is, in my opinion, about equal rights for everyone), but I’m not a man-hater (I am cranky and I can’t comment on whether I am boring). Why would I hate men? I dislike the power they have traditionally had and I am angry about some of the ways they have used and abused that power, but that doesn’t make me categorically hate them.

There are surely some misandrist feminists, just as there are misogynistic men, but I would guess that most feminists are not. So let’s get rid of that stereotype (while also getting rid of all the phallus statues and the way men touch themselves constantly!).

--Curly

The Monumental Phallus

To continue my penis-related theme from the last post, I can just point out how many statues and monuments are phallus-shaped. Why is that? Is there something Freudian that I ought to be analyzing? I can’t really imagine anyone building a vulva-shaped monument, and that makes me wonder what is really going on here (and don’t worry, I won’t go on a long rant about male supremacy and power). Don’t other people ever get tired of looking at these large, erect concrete penises?

--Curly