2014 - another year starting with a coal break

The coal break has ended. A while ago. Let it be forgiven that the reckoning was delayed until now, but it took me some time to comprehend the things that happened in the last few days.


I owe a huge confession to my self and everyone.

I do not understand until this day why the notion of the coal break has been called into existence by the university, and I believe it to be an abysmally stupid idea to keep 24-25 degrees Celsius in buildings with modern heating controlled by computers (which, for me, who rather likes chill and is not that sunshine-and-palm-trees type - and who could drown all the little meteorologist girls in a spoonful of water who dare to say that a temperature over 30 degrees Celsius is "nice weather", as no, that is not nice for me, but rather hell itself - results in all-day discomfort), then shut the whole thing down for 2 weeks, and then neatly reheat everything to that good old 24 degrees.

Communicational discordances

By the end of the semester, interactions with the student get an accession, in both direct and indirect forms. I guess I'm coming up with nothing new here if I say that there usually is at least one student in every group who haven't said a word to the topic of the practical course throughout the semester, but now, under the pressure of the imminent end of the semester, they turn into eager little pupils, and seek every possible way of finding the answers to their questions. Even if their questions don't make any sense, and even if they have been answered ten times already, including the previous day.


In these cases, under the horrific pressure I've mentioned earlier, they have no time to think over what they sould express, and so, usually, as I have gently mentioned above, these are the things that usually happen when a desperate student starts to speak:

•  The question has already been answered - multiple times - but they didn't notice.
• They intend what they have to say to be funny, but it isn't. By far not.
• What makes what they have to say funny is that they are serious about the whole thing.
• As a whole, the question has no connection whatsoever to reality as we know it.

Excuses & Point Hunters

...if I got to mention retake tests...  there's always that student, who hopes until the very end, and even after that. He/she has the time, why rush?

There will be a retake test? Then it's enough to prepare for that, the first test is just an ornament.

Will there be a retake test?

The situation is the following: without lengthily stating my motivation or explaining embarassingly long how I got here, I'll just put it simple, like in those movies with an "in medias res" beginning, where the picture comes to a halt and the main character starts his narration.

If you teach at a university, startling things may happen to you every day. The most of these events can be connected to the students. When a student turns to his/her professor, usually the requirements of the given course - and within that, the possible decreases of the requirements - are the topic. This is where the title comes from. (The original title of the blog, "Lesz pótZH?", was translated into the title of this post.) To put things graphically:

I gather conclusions such as this, and experiences connected to them day by day - even though I wish to refrain from making generalizations, and writing off all of the students.

So, when you teach at a university, startling things may happen to you every day. And I have come to think that I cannot contain it all in my head anymore. So, to be continued, with conclusions, cutting comments, sniffing around system-level faults, and from time to time, with thought-provoking and / or entertaining actual events that happened.