Today I led a hearing for a student who plagiarized her work for my class. I realized only later that I must have somehow seen the student’s actions as a threat to my person, as well as my work; when she mentioned that she was a wrestler, I found myself sizing her up as a reassessment of the sizing up I had apparently done earlier that week, when the case first developed. Though initially I apparently found myself to be about equal to her, my second assessment let me know that I would be in trouble, which is the only reason I realized all of this was going on in the back of my brain. Did I worry an academic hearing would turn into a brawl? Did I think I needed to protect something (the classroom? my other, hopefully non-plagiarizing students? the faculty member who served as a witness to the proceedings?). At any rate, I have not only one messed-up student, but also a messed-up head of my own.
Erin
Alan Schmierer