I could be bounded in a nutshell, and count myself king of infinite space, were it not that I have bad dreams

At just past five this morning, Jamison woke me to say that I was hollering in my sleep. From the time I went to bed last night until the wee hours, I had a series of disturbing lucid dreams that are still with me - and from which I had shouted a few resounding NOs. But now I'm sitting in my new class at Platt College - a temporary gig teaching composition - and they are hard at work writing stories for me from a Scattergories game. I hope they don't think I'm too much of a goofball. I am a goofball, but at least I'd like to think I'm well humored about that fact. I admit I have been dreading teaching here to some degree because the drive is long and the pay is shit, but so far, I'm having a good time. The others who work here have made me feel welcome, and this class has only five students in it - all good natured and chatty - so I think it's going to exceed my expectation.

Yesterday was a rubbish day mood-wise. I try to not be annoyed with insufferably stupid people, and I struggle to ignore those who offend me because I know it's never worth it to fight about such things, but still. I have this student from my spring 1020 class that won't go away and I have had it. He blew off the class entirely, turned almost nothing of import into me, and I informed him regularly and repeatedly that he had no prayer of passing my class and advised him to drop. His argument? He couldn't drop because he'd lose his financial aid and he'd be kicked out of school because he's on academic probation. It goes without saying here that he is clearly a stellar student and has been all this while; how he figures that any of these facts come to bear on me is a mystery. He made bad decisions, and expects me to care about them or feel compelled to help him, neither of which has ever happened on my end. I explained this clearly; in fact, I'd say that as students go, I'm a straight shooter. I never led this kid to believe anything but the truth of his situation. I should point out also that even though I kind of liked him, he pushed my buttons by always insisting on arguing with me on every point I tried to enforce, which I hate. I don't mind confrontation of this sort, but it bugs me when people have such a powerful sense of entitlement that they don't even hear what I'm saying - that it all translates into a personal beef between us when it's not. So when it came to turning in the final paper, I refused to take his because it had no bearing on his grade and I wasn't going to waste my time. I told him this and it was an email argument - AGAIN - so I ended it with telling him he was not welcome at the last class and if he showed up I would call the cops. I was not going to engage him any further.

So yesterday I get an email from the chair of the department that he wrote to her and claimed that I treated him unfairly and that I failed him because I felt like it. His letter of course was one-sided and villified me, and I don't even care about that part. What bugs me is that this guy actually believes he was mistreated and sees no fault in his own behaviors. How do you communicate with these people? It ultimately frustrates me because I know he'll never see the situation as his own fault; and his argument is that he needs a passing grade to stay in school. How selfish can you get? I can't stand students who see our relationship as capitalistic - that is, they are "paying" for school (i.e., a product), and they "deserve" to get what they paid for. I love the ones who say they're paying my salary. They are not; the State of Colorado pays my salary and our relationship is not a commercial one; it's a voluntary one in which I possess knowledge that they require and I choose to give it to them under my own rules. If they don't like me, they can choose another class. But I am hardly a servant, or a body behind a cash register, and I am not obligated to be nice, treat them as though they are customers who are always right, or care one iota about their personal shit. This kid better hope I never see him off the clock or so help me god... grrr.

But reflecting on that makes today a better day. It's ten a.m. and all is so far well, except for the lingering of my house being haunted by the Poltergeist clown this morning whilst I slept.