No one like doing it. Maybe it matters more to others than some, but it is never a satisfying, happy experience. And I now know. I've done it. Let me lay ot the circumstances:
This class was entitled Human Rights, and it happened to be my tutorial, which means that I met my fellow classmates at orientation, we were oriented together, and our teacher is supposed to look after us and be there for support through our first year as college students.
My particular tutorial was twice as big as it is generally supposed to be. This sort of obliterated the intent of bringing a small class of kids together in a close environment that would make discussions more meaningful and open. We had two teachers, and I found myself interacting more with the other teacher (NOT my advisor), who, while being perfectly nice, was not my advisor, and thus put my work below her students'.
Close to the beginning of the year, I became victim of a sister to the Swine Flu (H1N1 virus), and was literally unable to make five of my classes. Three of these absences were excused, but for reasons inexplicable to me, two were not. This was not a problem, however, because I was allowed three unexcused absences before failure. I then was unable to make the class right before Thanksgiving, which I emailed my teachers about, and assumed that they had been excused, or leastwise duly noted. In restrospect, I should have pressed further on the status of my attendance, however, I was unaware that it was a problem. Because I was unaware that two of my sick days were unexcused. For which I have no explanation, not only because I WAS SICK, but because NO ONE TOLD ME. When dealing with a class that demands exemplary attendance in order to pass, notification of "picking and choosing" which absences to excuse or not becomes crucial. Once I had missed more than the allotted number of absences, you would think that I would have been notified. I was not. Instead, I was allowed to waste my and their time showing up to class for WEEKS.
Added to the absence issue of being sick, was the problem that I was so sick so as not to be able to finish the essays assigned during that time. When I talked to my advisor, he told me that I should complete them and turn them in. So, amidst all of the other classwork I had to do, I began to catch up, slowly, but surely.
In the email I received notifying me of my failure, my advisor wrote that he could not accept my essays because they were late, and that some of the essays I had turned in prior did not count, because they did not answer the questions asked. Why the FUCK didn't he tell me this earlier??
I realize that I missed class due to bad reasons (I slept through my alarm because I was jetlagged, I had a late night the night before, etc...), and that I did not do my best in some areas of the class (my discussion board posts were kinda lame, no lie...). I take full responsibility for these actions (or lack thereof) and I would have accepted a bad evaluation at the end of the semester, as I would have deserved it. It is the fact that my advisor, who is supposed to support and help me through my first semester at college, and my first few months away from home, could not be bothered to tell me either that my failure was a possibility and that I needed to get my act together, or to tell me that I had failed and needn't do all the fucking hours of work that I did.
I am torn between being pissed, being upset, and being relieved that I don't have to write another essay for that class.
Tell me, what should I have done? I go to a small private college, where I pay a lot of money to have a personal relationship with my professors, and if I cannot get that from my ADVISOR, who is supposed to be the ULTRA-personal relationship, I don't know what...
At least my parents haven't killed me yet...it may have something to do with the fact that I'm on the East Coast, and their back in Cali...But I actually think they're on my side this time around. Which leads me to believe that it wasn't ALL my fault.
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