Today I went into the university to begin my work of tutoring for the new semester of the image processing course that my associate runs. This year the class runs from 2pm to 5pm on Thursdays, a welcome change from last year when it ran 6-9pm (on Tuesdays). And the class is huge, close to 300 students! We’re in a big lecture room and it was very full.
The first lecture is an introductory overview of image processing, and context for why it’s useful and what it’s used for, plus some administrative stuff about the course content and assessment, and a demonstration of Matlab, the software we use for teaching the practical components. It ended a bit early, but there were dozens of students waiting around afterwards to ask the professor questions. Some of them came over to ask me instead, since I’d introduced myself as a tutor early in the lecture. The most inevitable question is people asking if they can change their assigned project team group to be on a team with their friends. We always tell them no, the groups are assigned randomly to give them experience at working with strangers, which is important for future employment, and nobody can change teams. Some of them really don’t want to hear that answer!
I made it home with plenty of time for my evening ethics classes. I had to do a tough thing today and write a message to a parent telling them I can’t teach their kid any more. The kid is outside the listed age range of the class by 2 years, on the young side. Although the kid (I’m not going to use a gender-revealing pronoun) is very smart and able to converse on the topics, the kid is really not mature enough to engage in a group discussion without constantly interrupting and not letting anyone else get a word in, either me or the other students. I gave this kid two weeks and that was enough. I was almost tearing my hair out by the end of the second class, and decided I just couldn’t cope with it any more. The kid was also extremely pedantic and not willing to engage with the premises of the questions as intended.
For example, in this week’s topic on Shapeshifters I asked: “If everyone could turn into animals, would that be good or bad?”
The kid replied with, “People can’t turn into animals.”
When I pressed and said, “Yes, but imagine if we could. Would it be good or bad?”
And the kid responded, “People don’t need to turn into animals. We’re superior.” And this is just one example – there were several other questions where I couldn’t get a straight, non-pedantic answer that took the question in the intended spirit.
Maybe the kid is neurodivergent, but I didn’t honestly get that impression more than just a lack of maturity. I have other kids I know are neurodivergent and I can handle them fine, but this kid was just too much for me. I felt it was better for both of us that this kid not take my classes any more, at least for another year or two. I’ve never had a problem kid like this before.
Also today I mailed off another package of Magic: the Gathering cards. Nearly 1000 cards from the Fallen Empires set. Most of these cards are worth almost nothing on the secondary market, so I was glad someone wanted to buy a bulk lot of them and I can get them off my hands.
New content today: