Well, Springtime in these parts has been ushered in with a bang in the form of a giant deluge that has most of the northern part of this state underwater. Our town, for the most part, has been spared, relatively speaking. The lower lying areas are under water; there has been flooding here, but nothing on the scale of the neighboring towns and cities, some of which were under mandatory evacuation, and there are still people being rescued from their roofs by boat.
Our quarter was supposed to have started on Wednesday. Schools, businesses, government offices, etc., have all been shut down since then. One of the rare times my hoarding has worked for me has been this week as we have not been able (nor really willing) to leave the house. We have plenty of eggs, bacon, rice, sweet potatoes, leftovers, toilet paper, paper towels, coffee, snacks, oatmeal, and chips and crackers. The essentials.There is no way I'm taking a toddler out in this. However, we have quite literally been trapped inside for two days straight. And of course, as there are floods, the J is on flood duty and my parents are out of town (due back in today though as all doctor's appointments back home seem to have gone very well), and the J has drill this weekend. I think if I were to be trapped in the house for 5 days by myself with a toddler, I might go nuts. Not the least of which is because the house is a holy mess. I mean, it's bad. And all the things that I was going to do this week on my two days off (TTh) before the parents got back and while the kid was in school have gotten massively derailed. And I cannot clean most of the time when the Magpie is home. Especially since I was gone all last week, she will not let me out of her sight which has meant breakdowns for both toddler and mommy. I've had over a week now with very little sleep (and not very good sleep) due to travel and illness (because why wouldn't I get sick while taking the kids to their convention), and asthma and breathing problems are the worst! (It does seem to be getting better now though, after a week and four days of medicine). Plus, the storms and sirens have the dog all freaked out, so he keeps us up as well. The J slept on the couch for two nights with the dog because being on the floor in the den with J on the couch seemed to calm him and we three got some sleep. Naps have been hit or miss with the Magpie, which has me on the edge of sanity right now. I think, and I say this in all seriousness, that I have some kind of PTSD with Magpie and sleeptime since when she was a baby I was often alone with her (once for two weeks by myself while the J had AT) not able to leave the house because she would cry and cry and cry with her reflux and gas pains for seriously sometimes 20 out of the 24 hours a day. So when she doesn't go to sleep right away or go down for a nap, I go back to those early days and freak out and everything becomes dire, and I don't think that my family gets that. Anyway...
We have lots of students who commute from the flooded areas who are also trapped. Some of the faculty are furious that their quarter has been derailed by the rain and floods and are pissed that we have missed the first three days of school and are trying to see about canceling Easter break and pushing graduation back a week so they can make up their classes. In the same breath, these same people are complaining that they don't have the on-line lectures set up that they need, but when asked how to do that reply, "Oh it's so easy to do. All you need to do is x, y, and z, and that's it." Ahem, then if it's so easy, make lectures for what you missed and post it if you are already talking about doing that later in the quarter. There's your solution that you gave yourself! Yes, I know what a pain that is having done two on-line classes in the last two quarters, but do it if that's going to help you rather than complaining on FB about it. I'd like to point out too that the people who have been the most vocal about how it's b.s. that classes are canceled are unattached people without children who actually DO have time to put lectures up. Yeah, this sucks, and as proud as I was for having finished my syllabi three weeks ago, the schedule means nothing and I've got to go back and rearrange some things, but what is the benefit of having class if half your students can't get to class? What's the benefit of penalizing students (or faculty who also live in these areas) for being trapped in their homes by your desire to stay on schedule? What's the benefit to having a whole group of students be behind and maybe end up having to drop the class because they missed the two days you needed and couldn't get to the book store to get the books and maybe didn't have power or internet because of the flooding? Is that worth *your* needing to have class to stay on *your* schedule?
Look, maybe I'm getting soft in my old age, and maybe I'm just glad that I haven't had to negotiate having to bring the kid with me to class and try to teach with an active toddler who most likely won't want to sit still and want to perform for a whole class of people (and she's not going to sit in a colleague's office while I teach), but seriously, if half of my class isn't going to be able to make it, then what's the point? Spending my weekend answering 40 emails about class, how to find the texts because they can't get the books, not having internet (so sending emails from phones), it just seems like a much bigger hassle than spending 45 minutes or so rearranging some things. And honestly, I don't give a shit really about one's religious beliefs or lack thereof, but Easter break is our *only* break this quarter (basically a mini-spring break), so I will fight losing those two days and messing up my travel plans.
I feel like the pot calling the kettle black here in telling my colleagues to suck it up and quit complaining (since I am the Queen of Complaints), but I'm also a big fan of the path of least resistance. Rearranging the schedule and canceling class is a whole lot less work than having class and then having to deal with the several special cases who can't get to class because of the weather.
No comments:
Post a Comment