Thursday, February 19, 2004
Do you know what day it is?
During today's notebook check, I was having trouble deciphering the dates on one of my student's assignments. It appeared to be postdated...
"Why does this paper say 10/04?" I asked. "October is a few months from now."
"It's got the right date!" the student, a rather subversive joker with a proclivity for personally insulting his teachers, replied!
"Oh?" I said...
"Yeah...10/04...you know what month it is!"
Once he had revealed the secret of his little calendrical convention, then it was child's play to complete his notebook check. But the student's disrespectful attitude remained. He accused me of trying to "play him" when I attempted to teach him how to properly mark the date on his paper. After all, I told him, what about later in the year when you have a stack of papers with the same date on them, from a variety of different months.
"Won't matter," he would say. "I can keep track." His low score on his notebook check argues otherwise.
He's a fool. I realize that now. At the time...I was just amazed. 10 years of public education and no one taught him how to properly abbreviate the date?
Simply amazing!
During today's notebook check, I was having trouble deciphering the dates on one of my student's assignments. It appeared to be postdated...
"Why does this paper say 10/04?" I asked. "October is a few months from now."
"It's got the right date!" the student, a rather subversive joker with a proclivity for personally insulting his teachers, replied!
"Oh?" I said...
"Yeah...10/04...you know what month it is!"
Once he had revealed the secret of his little calendrical convention, then it was child's play to complete his notebook check. But the student's disrespectful attitude remained. He accused me of trying to "play him" when I attempted to teach him how to properly mark the date on his paper. After all, I told him, what about later in the year when you have a stack of papers with the same date on them, from a variety of different months.
"Won't matter," he would say. "I can keep track." His low score on his notebook check argues otherwise.
He's a fool. I realize that now. At the time...I was just amazed. 10 years of public education and no one taught him how to properly abbreviate the date?
Simply amazing!
