in my place…
..put there. I deserve it, and actually really need it. Healthy for this sort of thing to happen. Really. It is. No, seriously, I can take it.
So I just now received an email from one of my undergrads, an exchange student, which I skimmed rather quickly, sniffing out the part where she says that one of my former students “told [her] that [my] class is really wonderful,” and that’s why she enrolled.
Hmmpf. But of course. You know, I try. Glad that they’re paying attention, glad that it registers, my enthusiasm and, well, wonderfulitude.
A minute or so later, I get another email from said exchange student. Apparently, the previous message was meant for one of my colleagues. No problem - we all make mistakes. I should have read it more closely. But on further inspection, sifting down to search out mention of my wonderfulness, I find, in the equivalent position in the new message, the fact that my former student “told [her] that [my] class is not that hard.”
Hmmpf. Err. OK. Yes, I try. I try very hard… not to be hard. Glad that it, um, registers…
Thanks, former student.
Oof. I had this open, trying to figure out how to comment on it; then decided not to. Now have decided to again.
Students, good or otherwise, often confuse “easy” with “well-taught,” “interesting,” or “didn’t feel like work.” I’ve had C+ students say that my class was “easy.” When I asked them what they meant, they said “I looked forward to it” or “the assignments didn’t seem like busy-work.”
So there’s a chance that this student isn’t commenting on the class itself so much as her experience of it, which she registered as “positive” and, hence, “easy.”