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December 08, 2005
Horrible Human Beings: I Taught One of Them
After my first year of law school, I spent part of the summer teaching an introductory law class to a group of high school students. Most of the students were not only incredibly intelligent, but also quite nice. However, one young bitch woman came up short on both fronts. This particular student wasn’t an idiot, but she also wasn’t the type of person who would ever need to worry about vying for a position at Oxford. More importantly, her disposition was about as friendly as the BTK killer's when he made house calls. She had a horrible attitude throughout the entire summer and even tried to get me in trouble for giving her a bad grade on her first assignment. (That definitely got us off to a good start, though I swear I actually bent over backwards to cut her some slack on assignments and tests because I knew I didn't like her due to the fact that she was a horrible human being.)
The last question on my final exam was the following: “What grade do you feel you deserve in this course and why?”
One girl, who just happened to receive the highest score on the final exam, wrote something like, “I probably deserve a D in this class because I didn’t give a good speech and could have worked harder.” Would it come as a shock to learn that this particular girl didn’t exactly have a ton of self-confidence? (I actually fear that she’ll kill herself one day.) She ended up getting an A, which was well deserved even if her speech really did suck.
The bitchy girl, on the other hand, took an entirely different approach in crafting her response to the question. She used reasoning that even Saddam Hussein would dismiss as being completely idiotic. “I believe I earned an A because (read this carefully) although I didn’t do well on the homework, quizzes, or tests, or participate much in the class discussions, I feel I contributed a lot to the class.” To quote GE Friend, “Ummmmmmm!” I almost jotted a little note next to her answer stating something like, "You've got to be fucking kidding, right? Were you high when you wrote this?" I just ended up not giving her an "A" instead. Yes, I'd rather teach the street law kids than ever encounter this particular girl again.
Comments
I want to hear the story about what happened when she saw the F you gave her.
Posted by: Finished.Law.School at December 8, 2005 09:32 AM
She sounds terrific. I love kids.
Posted by: The Attractive Nuisance at December 8, 2005 07:42 PM
