terrshee's Diaryland Diary
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Culling the Algebra Herd
That which does not kill us makes us stronger? Last night it appears the last of the weak were culled from the algebra herd.
Class attendence has been eroding, but those who wish to fail miserably didn't show and those of us who are at least willing to fail successfully did. The class is less than 50% of the starting numbers, and it is clear the remainder are determined to get through. People aren't leaving after the break the way they did. We're talking and sharing and commiserating and generally doing our best to help one another. It makes a much better dynamic than forcing the prof to remind people to turn in their work and look at the on-line forum to get the class announcements.
I don't know if I'll pass, but I do know that dropping the class won't help. If I have to retake it, so be it. At least I'll have covered all the material and will have a fighting chance the next time.
I feel for the people who underestimated their ability to keep up and had to make tough choices about what courses to keep and what to drop. I have nothing but thinly veiled contempt for those who didn't listen when the prof said what was required and whined about how much homework is involved; it ain't about the student, it's about the subject. I can't get over how many students want to be accommodated without reference to the actual learning involved. What do they think is going to happen in the next required level? Was it always this way?
Anyway, seven weeks to go, six more homeworks, one test and one final. One day at a time.
For some reason I've got an itch to try to make an embroidered Elizabethan coif. I dug up a pattern on the Internet for the coif part, and got a little book on Elizabethan embroidery. Whoa. Way beyond my simple (and clumsy) needle skills. But I may try it anyway. Perhaps if I stick to white work my nasty stitching won't be as obvious. Now how to I transfer a pattern. Hmmm. More looking up of stuff.
8:23 a.m. - 2005-10-25
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past tense - always tense - future tense
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