I learned a new word today from the New York Times: bildungsroman. A German word literally translated as "education novel". A great word to describe a coming-of-age story. Now if I could only pronounce it correctly.
Lately I have been looking up unfamiliar words on Google during my NYT perusals and then posting them on twitter. Now I have a record and I and my two followers can use these words whenever possible. I wish I had the same while reading Ulysses by James Joyce. The other day I thought I was close to the end because Leopold Bloom finally made it home. He undressed and climbed into bed and kissed his wife's butt. Now the novel is in her voice. She doesn't like punctuation or periods but she is great at explaining her side of things.
I have officially been on vacation for three days. Grades were due on Friday. I posted most of them on Thursday and then the final class Friday. I made an error an gave a D to a student instead of a C. Thank goodness she caught the mistake and emailed me. So Monday I had to make a trip to the Registrar and sign a form to correct my flub. Today is the first day I don't feel bad about failing a few students. I go through such agony during finals week. This semester I had so many borderline students. I had some athletes that I really wanted to fail. They had low D's and their group grades would have sent them over the edge but I put that "injustice" caveat in my syllabus. What is odd is that I always go back to my own days as a student and consider those classes where I got much higher marks than I deserved: insect physiology, evolution, genetics, aquatic vascular plants, environmental law, paleobotany, biostatistics.
Yesterday I was leafing through a BYU alumni magazine and came across some astounding statistics. The average ACT scores for incoming freshman -- 28, the average High School GPA for incoming freshman -- 3.8. Wow! The average BYU freshman has the same credentials as an LBW honors student. I'm wondering now if I would have been accepted to BYU today. Those are some smart kids.
