Greetings Citizens. An odd day today at the lab. Kids crying, breaking down, seeing the inevitable F. It was all going on today. One of my kids wants to join some weird circus troupe and they're leaving on Friday. So this gal is in a mad dash to do a quarters worth of work in two weeks. Today two rolls of film she processed was underexposed. So after kicking the lockers for a minute, she melts down. Now, I ask you gentle readers, what am I supposed to do? Give her a good grade because she's leaving to join the circus? Console her, then flunk her? Oh the drama of it all. She should just take a "W" and move on with her life, if you ask me. But she'll have none of that. So instead she has placed these unreasonable demands on herself and is stressed beyond the breaking point. Then, later in the day, a woman tells me she isn't working on a print anymore because she's over budget on photo supplies. What grade would I give the print? I tell her a "C" because she knows it can be made better but doesn't want to put in the effort to make it better. So, again, it's my fault. I tell her that she asked and I told her. I also told her it is only one print of many and to crunch the numbers. Does she think her grades is riding on one print of many? If all the work she has turned in has shown improvement, does she actually think it will be a major penalty to not have one print made as good as she can possibly make it. Here, the tears are wiped away and some semblance of a smile appears on her face. It's wacked! As the quarter winds down everyone is trying to get something for nothing or are so grade crazy that they can't see the forest from the trees. I swear to God the only ones who know what are going on are a couple of "A" students and a gal who is flunking and knows it. And the whole thing comes down to this: if they just did their work they would have absolutely nothing to worry about. It is truly an eye-opener to see how differently community college students handle themselves compare to university students. It's apples and oranges. All that said, there are some great kids in my class making some nice work... and more importantly trying some new ideas.

I dropped off the prints for the raffle today. Lori wasn't there to accept the work but she sent an email to say the work was "absolutely fabulous" and I should stop by and introduce myself. Well, since she's the head of the visual communications department, I might just have to do that.