Papers

I am beginning to grade the papers now. They seem stronger than the drafts, thank goodness. Most people did not take advantage of the opportunity to see me before the paper was due; I could not see them all the day before, and had made appointments in the couple of days before that, dismissing class very early to do it, but almost none of them took advantage of this. I spoke to a few by email; the rest were on their own, by their own will, but at the last moment regretted this choice. Oh well. Perhaps they will do something different on the second paper.
In this class I have one of those odd and very intelligent students, a bit arrogant, older than the others I think, who never turns in a stitch of work, but is always present and has carefully read the texts and in this case watched the movie. I sent him an email and have written on his work that he should drop the class because the class is half over, and he has a 0 average, having turned nothing in.
Jeremy took the assessment tests yesterday, and will probably be placed in basic math and Writing 1. I spoke to Julie, a colleague at school who is retiring, about doing my best to stay away from him on campus and resisting the urge to advise him. He'll come to me if he wants advice. I think she is right. I'll try hard to keep my mouth shut. He needs to make his own decisions and learn for himself.
I did speak to him about his desire to move out though. I told him it was going to cost a whole lot more than he imagined, and ran down the list of expenses he would experience. He thinks he will come to our house for supper most nights, or else I can give him the money I spend on his food every week and he can take care of himself. I can do that. He claims he can live on $40. per week for food, if he comes to our house on a regular basis for supper. He says he'll either forgo cable tv, or split the expense with the other three guys who will be living at his place. It will be an opportunity for him to find out what it costs to live. We had better not move to a smaller place because my guess is he'll be back, finding the living much more difficult and less fun than he imagined.