Evaluation Aftermath
This is post 16 of Section II. To begin at the beginning, go here. Section II begins here.
But she was not fine, she reflected. She was especially not fine after reading her evaluations. “If Miss Weems was bleeding by the side of the road, I would not stop to pick her up,” said one. “I would rather stay home and have Satan pull my toenails than come to this class,” read another. Of course they weren’t all like that, but those were the kind that stuck with her.
And that was how Gregory came to find her sitting depressed on the sofa when he got home. “Chloe?” he said, apprehensively. She had been acting odd lately (since she had discovered the tape, but she had not explained this to him). Probably that new Emotional Flunky book she had gotten, he thought, poisoning her mind against men. “Elizabeth said Mommy wasn’t feeling well. Anything I can do? Foot massage?”
Chloe hunched away from him, drawing her knees up.
Gregory was about to give it up as a case of hysteria, but his eye fell on the envelope with the evaluations. “Oh God, Chloe. Not that again.”
Chloe shrugged, and a tear rolled down her face.
Continue
But she was not fine, she reflected. She was especially not fine after reading her evaluations. “If Miss Weems was bleeding by the side of the road, I would not stop to pick her up,” said one. “I would rather stay home and have Satan pull my toenails than come to this class,” read another. Of course they weren’t all like that, but those were the kind that stuck with her.
And that was how Gregory came to find her sitting depressed on the sofa when he got home. “Chloe?” he said, apprehensively. She had been acting odd lately (since she had discovered the tape, but she had not explained this to him). Probably that new Emotional Flunky book she had gotten, he thought, poisoning her mind against men. “Elizabeth said Mommy wasn’t feeling well. Anything I can do? Foot massage?”
Chloe hunched away from him, drawing her knees up.
Gregory was about to give it up as a case of hysteria, but his eye fell on the envelope with the evaluations. “Oh God, Chloe. Not that again.”
Chloe shrugged, and a tear rolled down her face.
Continue
posted by Hobbes at 7:45 PM
5 Comments:
That was touching. Made me think. We can go all week and encounter hundreds of people and one might smile and pay a compliment and that really brightens up the world, or one can say something really nasty and that is the one we remember and tears us apart inside. I keep trying to think of a Bob Dylan song, I think, that expressed that sentiment but I can't remember it or the exact words, but it was something like some people love us, some people hate us, but most even care at all. Maybe Doug would know. But that was a really good meaty part of the story. So very good.
Icy, you dropped something. Like the word "don't" even care...
Thanks. Actually I was afraid it was maudlin, because I did get those evaluations, and I did get depressed every time, until I just stopped reading them.
When I taught at Yale as a TA, by the way, the students were mostly very reasonable in their comments. But Veryred U is a complete nightmare.
I always felt bad for professors on their evaluations. I suspect the harder it is for a student to express themselves in a paper, the more poetic they get come evaluation time. Tom, that sounds familiar but I don't recognize it. It actually reminds me of a Country-Western song but I can't name that either.
By the way, being an employer is similar. The staff that can't follow simple instructions always have brilliant theories of how you can't punish them based on employment law in the Great State of California and relevant federal statutes.
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