Weird Students: Fodder For A Writer
Dr. Evil. Hmmm.
It was indeed a weird semester for my college English class.
I think the one thing that puzzles me about the crazy students that I get is they don’t understand their professor is a writer. Their antics make them fodder for my writing.
Fodder is raw materials, and that’s what they are supplying for my writing.
Believe it or not, I had a student that didn’t write her own papers. In fact, I don’t think she could write, but I didn’t have any evidence. I know that her writing never matched her voice. One of her family members would send me emails under her name, and then the student would actually email me and ask me the same question but with misspelled words and very bad grammar. It was like one hand didn’t know what the other hand was doing. Then, she turned into a stalker. Her antics are fodder for story ideas.
I had a couple of students that turned in academic articles for their papers, but I didn’t have the evidence. Don’t the students know that I know their papers aren’t their own? I feel very bad for them because they will keep cheating, and as they grow older, the consequences get more severe in life. They’re my fodder for future characters.
Part of teaching is having these crazy stories with crazy students, who have not yet had the cord cut from Mom and Dad and just have not learned about taking responsibility for their actions. I had some students that blamed me for their bad grades because I didn’t remind them to turn in their work. Irresponsible? Blaming others? That’s fodder for some good characters.
I have to be grateful for the weird semesters and the weird students. Every time I was frustrated with some antic that a student would pull, I just had to step back and start laughing because I knew that the student’s personality or actions would serve for some character trait in future stories.
Hmm. Do you really want to be fodder for my writing?
Bring it on.
