The Incredible Shrinking Man!
I used to work as an instructional assistant at a community college. One evening I was making my rounds in the lab and noticed grey muddy footprints all over the shop floor so I followed them around though the library and into the shop where I met up with the student who made the mess. He was speaking with another student, so I went and got a mop and bucket and brought it to him and said "Here you go". He appologized and went off to mop up the muddy mess. The student he was speaking to informed me that the mud on his shoes was from the ash of his house as it had burned down in the forest fires that were raging at that time. Needless to say I felt about 2" tall at that point. NEVER assume anything.
Thanks for sharing this lesson, Andre. It's so easy to jump to conclusions and lose the human touch.
Wow, what a great example and lesson to learn from. Making assumptions can become a bad practice. I think it helps to remember to be understanding but it's easy to assume. How do you think you would've approached it if you had known his situation?
I met a student just recently who stepped up to ask for help with a complex topic. During tutoring I learned that at 19 years old, he is raising his younger 15 year old brother, as his parents both died 3 years ago. You realize that some have way more things on their plate to deal with than normal that could interfere with the learning process. I commended him and reinforced the ideas that persistance and his great attitude towards learning, will lead him to great success in the future. I told him never to hesitate to ask for help from myself or the other instructors on campus.
Andre,
We have all had those, "Oh, I wish I hadn't said or done that" moments with students. All one can do at that point is try one's best to repair any damage done and then go above and beyond to make sure the student's issue is addressed and, hopefully, resolved.
It can be amazing some of the situations students have that we would and could make accommodation for if we knew about the situation.
Any thoughts about how we can find out about those situations?
I believe we have all been on his side, also. Hopefully, they understand this and can move on too.
