August 17, 2011

Another huge bout of garden care yesterday got the shade garden almost back to a civilized state. Today I pretty much got the south front in order. Just in time for the semester. Sunburnt and bug-bit.

Read student comments from the Cambridge trip, needing a pick-me-up and thinking something nice might be said. The statistics were all right, but those who took the time to comment in sentences were, of course, disgruntled: two detailed negative comments, both involving errors in fact, which didn’t prevent their being the ones I remember and chew on, wanting to go to their sources and say, “But that’s not TRUE.” It really doesn’t matter whether they’re true or not, you feel betrayed. I remember a proud father in the Pickerel introducing to me a daughter whom he clearly loved very much. They had just taken a European trip together, and when he was finished bragging on her and their relationship and all the wonderful places they visited, she said, “Of course, I never got the I-pod I was promised.” That was all she remembered, and now it’s all he remembers.

I wonder if students realize that the most common reaction to evaluation comments is stupefaction. Who? What? I did what? Were they really in my class?