I work with and have taught a number of ex-military types and have been told I would have made a good officer. This and the story I'm about to share shows that I would not have been since if I had been that lieutenant I would have laughed long and hard.Zork Nemesis wrote:Basic training, I was on "ship's staff duty" (front door watch at the barracks). I ended up reciting the script in front of me when I answered a phone call word for word. The script said something along the lines of "sir or ma'am" but by the time I was reading that part I already knew the gender of the person on the other end. Needless to say, the person on the other end was the Lieutenant of the barracks and she wasn't happy about my choice of words.
TAing for a freshman class I had an extremely annoying student who thought he knew everything. Not a problem in and of itself (there's a few in every class and the first exam usually straightens them out) but he also seemed to enjoy disrupting every lecture with inane questions and arguing every. single. question. every. single. homework. By midterms I can't take anymore and hold him after class for a very stern conversation on his behavior. I find out during the subsequent meeting with the dean and my phd advisor that he had an autism spectrum disorder (don't remember which one) and had run to the counselors in tears. I got off with a relatively minor ass chewing since they had forgotten to tell me. Woops.
That happened almost two years ago and it was only recently that I have been willing to discipline students personally.