Student "edition" found at {csi dot journalspace dot com}.

Maybe I shouldn't have started this blog now, not with everything that's been going on.

Yesterday was the first meeting of the School of Engineering that I attended.

For the second time, the director put forward his proposal that the students should be allowed to drop subjects up to twice as much as the current deadline, into the second half of the term.

I think he's coming from the point of view that students should know their limits and not continue to delude themselves into thinking they can pass a subject they are not giving enough effort on.

He also seems to not want to deal with those kinds of students anymore, since they are apparently a waste of time to continue to try to teach and check unimprvoing exam papers for.

Personally I'm from the school of thought that if a student asks me on the rare occasion if he still has a chance to pass - at any point in the term - I always reply with an enthusiastic "yes" even without looking at his grading sheet.

It's best, I believe, to build up a student's self confidence and perseverance.

What his proposal ultimately will cultivate will be a habit of quitting.

We already have enough of that with students shifting to a course with less math or no computer programming from the one they originally and unrealistically thought they would be suited for.

I hope this motion, even though "passed" by the teachers of the engineering courses, will be voted down when it reaches the council of directors.

Other points in the meeting were standardizing the rules for exemption in the finals, although it is still up to the teacher to decide whether or not to give exemptions; making consistent the percentage of the finals and the other requirements in the grading system and the breakdown of the lecture and lab credits for the final grade. The same teacher I mentioned before who was always asking about the benefits now complained about how he was surprised that it's more difficult to get promoted year after year, when before he used to just have the same amount of requirements submitted every time.

He doesn't seem to understand that with his higher pay and rank, the school is expecting more and better outputs from him, and not just in accumulated teaching materials compiled.

More on the meeting next time.

Session 1527 is all take and very little give. Class dismissed.