All Boxed Up

I had a meltdown (almost literally) at work yesterday.

Because of lack of space, they have squeezed the faculty in to an office about the size of a booth at the Yard House. There is no ventilation and a copy machine that runs constantly giving off heat and fumes.

My final round of complaints was met with something akin to "that's just the way it is- this is a designated workspace."

What is that all about?

I remember the good old days when people complained about Dilbert-esque environments



Now, this is how I spend my days
In this little sweat box, I am supposed to dream up academic brilliance, grade papers, and meet with students. And I do it with 9 other people in the room.

Well, they can stick me in a box, but they cannot keep my mind there!
They don't know it, but I have a penthouse view.....in my mind.

Cheaters never prosper.....

I spent the morning correcting papers for one of the online classes that I teach.
I was appalled at the plagiarism.
Appalled, but not surprised.

There are sites out there where you can buy papers.
Should that be?

There are students out there who are taking care of families, working two jobs and trying to go to school.

Is that a recipe for disaster?

I did what I had to do and rejected their copied work; but I did feel sorry for them.

I know that their heart is going to sink when they see the zero on their papers.

I know that they rationalized the whole thing.

But they have known about this assignment for 8 weeks!

Cheating is not new and in this fast paced world, in may seem like the only way.

But I can very defensive about academia.
I mean, there has to be a place somewhere in the world where people are not lying and there is no subterfuge, right?

These students are seeing news stories every day about how politicians and financiers lie, cheat and steal and have risen pretty far doing so.
Can you blame them for trying?

Unfortunately, I have to.
But I do feel sorry for them.

Where to put my thoughts....

Daisy the Wonder Dog is waiting for me to take her for a walk, so this is going to be short.

Lately, my husband and I have been doing a lot of talking about slowing things down- not slowing down- just slowing things down.

You now, smell the roses...

It all started actually when this economic tsunami hit and it became so incredibly obvious just how discounted we all are as human being by those in power.

Now, it is their sandbox, so I assume they can make the rules.
But we do not have to play the game.

So, we are taking our ball and finding another playground
And we will just play with friends
We will grab every moment we can with our family
We will make sure that our grandkids know us and the generations that went before us
And we will not keep score with dollar signs
And we will let the kids play that no one else wants on their team
And when we have done all of that- we have already won!