Unprofessional Parenting

I just need to vent a little. I had to take a few days off to get caught up with some work. I have a part time gig teaching online college writing classes. My students range from 18-25ers who don’t want to go to regular college (for various reasons) and parents who can’t commute to school or work full time but who still want to further their careers.

It’s usually pretty easy work. Unfortunately I don’t get to design my own classes - I have to follow their assignments so I basically just engage discussions about class topics, offer advice, and grade assignments. Trying to encourage some of these students, however, is becoming more frustrating than trying to reason with my two year old.

I was hoping my son would grow out of the phase when I tell him something and he pretends he doesn’t hear me. I have students recently, however, who are still doing this and apparently think their grade will be okay if they just ignore my warnings long enough. Several in my current class are turning is assignments 3-4 weeks late (long after they are worth any credit) and still not staying up on current work. I post notes, friendly reminders, and grade warnings but they not only don’t respond, they keep posting this stuff that is really late in the hopes that I might start giving them credit (I guess).

**Sigh** I suppose for some it’s a lifelong problem but unfortunately for my students and my son I don’t give up easily. My son will respond if I raise my voice a bit and I’m going to start posting reminders to my students in caps so they know “YOU ARE FAILING MY CLASS”. Maybe they’ll notice.