Thursday, September 21, 2006

In Defense of Unicorn Girl

After reading some of the responses to my original post on Unicorn Girl, I did a wee bit of undergrad-style research (that is, I typed my topic into google). I found that there is, in reality, a cave painting that is referred to as a unicorn--even though in the photo that I saw of it, it clearly has two horns. There is also an extinct species of rhinoceros that has "Unicorn" in its Latin name; it apparently had a single horn (although the horn is not preserved in the fossil record), and it's believed that myths about unicorns may be based on this animal. Finally, there was a scientist in the 1700's who believed that he had found physical evidence of extinct unicorns. So the student in question is still seriously confused, but not quite as badly as I thought she was. I can see how she found much-diluted and corrupted accounts of these facts, perhaps on some sort of message board for people who believe that unicorns are real, and conflated them into recent scientific evidence of real unicorns. It's possible she is not crazy, just not very good at telling reliable sources from unreliable ones.

On the other hand, apparently the draft she brought to peer review was about different kinds of magic and how dragons only speak mind-to-mind with people who are pure of heart. Her classmates apparently convinced her to dial down the crazy a bit. I remain slightly boggled by the idea of a college student who things unicorns and telepathic dragons are an appropriate paper topic, but I'm guardedly optimistic that she's not completely off her rocker.

In other news, I have a student in the Lit. class who, upon having her single response paper (she should have written two by now) returned with a low grade for being late, and a comment that she was one response paper behind, told me that she had, in fact, done the first one. You see, she left it on her desk in the classroom when the class ended. She assumed I had it, even though when I returned her classmates' work, she didn't get it back. Is there anyone in the world who thinks that leaving work on a student desk in the classroom constitutes "turning in" said work? Is she really that dumb, or does she just think I am? She produced a "second copy" of the paper, which I didn't accept because my firm policy is that response papers have to be turned in on the day we discuss the text that it's responding to--the whole point of them is to ensure that students show up to class with things to say about the reading assignment, so if students go home and write them after the discussion, their purpose isn't being served. The student just said, "Oh, okay," and left, but I forsee further difficulties once she's had a chance to come up with what she thinks is a compelling counterargument. I mean, she did have it on the day! It's not her fault I didn't inspect every random piece of paper left in my classroom, on the off chance that it might be somebody's homework!

I plan to stand firm--they're supposed to do seven response papers; missing one is not going to torpedo her grade, as long as she writes the rest of them on time.

5 Comments:

Blogger Garble said...

Wow, just wow.

7:04 AM  
Blogger Lady Strathconn said...

Dragons talking mind-to-mind is a fine topic for a college student if she is doing a response to literature on the Inheirtence trilogy. Otherwise, your classmates and professor are going to look at you askance.

I don't accept the "it was on my desk" excuse from my second graders. If I find paperwork laying around I put it in the unfinished basket and let them work it out.

7:55 AM  
Blogger Teacher lady said...

I respectfully disagree about Dragon Girl piping down. Students that are borderline nuts tend to have very little self-awareness. My student from the depths of hell CLEARLY made every other student in the classroom uncomfortable every time she mentioned "Jesus" or "Our Savior", but she either didn't notice or didn't care. Good luck.

11:03 PM  
Blogger Zoemonster said...

I thought I left a comment for you but I guess I cant do that either.. just wanted to thank you for inspiring me to write- and since I couldnt blogroll you (too spatially challenged), I tried to leave a link here under the comment section on my blog (where I had to use word verification.. on my own site) LOL.. I know this is a major run on sentence but if you can decode "2 seet fetus ride," you prolly can pick up what I'm trying to say here. I look forward to spending a good long time browsing yr blog this AM.. as I am locked in the bedroom with a sick dog.. n/k and no edit

Syb

9:48 AM  
Blogger Zoemonster said...

It is I again... DAYUM

I enjoyed spending time reading, the dog liked it too.. That aside, I did EVERYTHING you suggested to try and create a Blogroll, added yr name.. in this CraXy looking template thingy.. thought I had lost the whole blog (that prolly would be a good thing:)) LOL.. so I republish it.. NADA.. so I go BACK to the initial site you told me to go to...blogrolling.com

They had sent me an email confirming that I was alive. I still have to check nowadays.. and I get THIS frickin message...

"that name is used. Check here for your passwword"

and then an empty screen.. no place to click.. no place to go, so I Just came back here to Vent.

Hell's Bells.. I seriously read the best dang blogs on the tangled interweb, and I'd love to share what I've found... Well, at least I was able to update "good books" in my profile,,, that's gonna have to do for now!

Grrrrrrr... I guess I am GPO'd (generally pissed off) cuz I am The. Only. Person. In. The. World. who writes on a blog and cant create a dang Blogroll ...


SL

10:47 AM  

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