Victorianitas

This was going to be a generalised, non-identifying, pedagogically sound rant about my students, because some of them have been really pissing me off recently. I taught one class on Friday afternoon (yes, yes I was last in line when the scheduling got sorted out, and through nobody's fault but my own), which I was not expecting to go well: only half of them turned up last week, most of the ones that were there expressed shocked disbelief over the idea that I'd expect them to read a novel right through to the end, I'd set them extra work on top of that which wasn't going to be assessed, they'd been slipping back into monosyllabic answers over the past couple of weeks, it was raining, and I was ill. This does not suggest good things. So I thought oh, well, if this goes as horrifically as it's probably going to, I can at least feel (mostly) justified in grumbling about the whole thing on the internet.

So naturally, they all turned up with the book, having done all the reading and the extra work I set, and talked enthusiastically about the novel for the whole hour in a thoughtful and detailed way. Now I feel really bad about even thinking of grumbling about them.

I'm still ill, though. Curses.