I had a woman ask me today if I could "help her just a little" in passing her citizenship exam. Which is really dumb because the entire thing is recorded. It always make me angry because a) I wouldn't cheat period but also b) I can't imagine putting myself at risk like that.

She wasn't asking you to cheat, just help a little! @@

He came to talk to me and explained that he misunderstood the question. Then he demanded that I check his answer based on the question he actually answered, not the question we had asked (which everybody else understood). And he could not possibly understand why I refused.

Oh, man, I think I've been that student. Only not with the demanding, so much. You put all that work in, and you do the work right, and you get nothing! Okay, obviously it's your own fault, but I remember the feeling. It just seems so stupidly unfair -- not so much of the teacher, but of, like, the universe. I did argue about a science test in 7th grade because I'd answered a question based on a caption I'd misunderstood. But my interpretation was otherwise totally valid!

Joe had a cadet last year who asked, "What can I do to pass this test?" after he had already failed the test. This happened out in Washington. The cadet got thrown out of the program for cheating. But not before there was a long discussion about cultural norms (because the cadet was from PR) and cheating.

It always makes me wonder - to me it's clearly cheating and I"m offended by the request for "a little help", but some of the PR officers Joe works with think that "a little help" is not unethical. Which I don't get because it seems so black and white to me.

You know, I've been thinking about the stuff in here about people's feelings of entitlement, watching people on the bus, etc. I think some of it is a resistance to growing up - people react like little Naddy in Fay's story. He has the excuse of being very young, but I see people who seem to think that because they want something it should be given to them. And it's not just students, it's supposedly adult people. As an example, there are signs all over the Metro saying that eating and drinking are prohibited - but people get on with food and drink (heaven forbid they should go without water for 15 minutes!) and frequently leave a mess for someone else to clean up.

The students at - Georgetown, I think it is - are all up in arms because of new rules to cut back on the amount of drinking. The latest "outrage" is that they've instituted a $200 fine for anyone who throws up on the bus. (This is a shuttle to another college and, late at night, there's only one bus and if someone gets sick, the driver has to stop, get everyone off, call for alternate transportation, then either clean up the bus or get it to the garage to be cleaned.)

People I've seen at work believe they shouldn't be called upon to work longer hours than they find convenient, they shouldn't be held responsible for anything they do wrong, they shouldn't have to do anything they find difficult or just tedious.

Not to mention the people who get offended if asked to dress like a grown-up - a t-shirt, jeans, and flip-flops do NOT constitute business attire, even business casual.

(yes, I'm grumpy today)

The headline is the best part: Dog Saves Family From Fire Blamed on Cat

Cote said the fire marshal investigator believes the blaze was started when Princess, the family cat, tipped over a kerosene lantern. Cote says he and his pets escaped safely, but he says Princess did get her tail singed by the flames.

So they left a cat alone in a room with a burning thing?

See, there's a difference between answering a question that can be open to more than one interpretation, and simply making a mistaking and continuing to solve according to it.

I mean, I still remember one exam in which I insisted with the professor that his questions could be understood in a way different than what he had intended. He eventually agreed that I was correct, that it was a possible way of understanding the text as written (even though not as originally meant) and changed me grade. It's not the same as saying "yeah, I made a mistake in the first step, I chose the road not-taken, despite the "beware the tiger" signs on it, but I still want to be marked according to the steps I made on it".

Oh, and of course, there's always the part in which each step of the way is graded according to itself and itself alone, even if some previous step in the way to it is mistaken. So the rest of the work does get credit, if it deserves it.

Only not with the demanding, so much.

Um, that's important. That student tried to convince me that I was the one who is wrong, because I'm not accepting his mistake.

Do you have the Chabad people trying to convince the men to wear tefillin or the like? It's like that, only in reverse, in a way?

We did at NYU. Guys would ask "are you Jewish?" and pounce if you answered yes.

More than once I threatened to rat out a friend running late for class. "I'm telling him! I am! 'Hey! Right over here! Stephen is Jewish!!!!'"...

Ah, good times...

You know, I've been thinking about the stuff in here about people's feelings of entitlement, watching people on the bus, etc. I think some of it is a resistance to growing up.

I wonder if "entitlement" is the default of childhood and that part of being raised right is being taught that it won't always be like this.

The latest "outrage" is that they've instituted a $200 fine for anyone who throws up on the bus.

That's brilliant. The fine, not the outrage.