Shits & Giggles

A new semester has begun. After a great winter break, I was looking forward to my old routine and to returning to the classroom. I was actually starting to miss my students. And then just to question my sentimental judgment, after the first day of class I got the first of many student emails that just make me say "huh."

A student was explaining to me that he might have to drop my class because it didn't meet the requirements that he thought he needed for graduation and, really, there was no point in just taking my class for "shits and giggles." Yup, his words exactly. I don't know when I'm ever going to get used to the casualness of students' interactions with professors. I'm not offended by the language, but I'm dismayed at the thought that a student was typing this message and had no filters whatsoever about the language that he should be using in professional communications. He took the time to send me a completely unnecessary email (since my class is an elective, students can drop/add at their will) but he didn't think for a second about the best way to communicate that message. [sigh] The dismay begins to creep in already ...