This is an idea I have had floating around in my mind for some time. After the morning I posted about my “Seminar” dream, I contemplated the symbols of the dream, jotted down some notes on what alternate actions and events could represent a more favourite meaning, then entered into a pathworking session back into the dream:
I returned to the seminar at my high school. I arrived early and chatted to the speaker a little before I went and sat in the seat beside where my colleague was in my dream. When my colleague arrived, he saw me and introduced me to his brother immediately. We chatted animatedly at every chance and when it was my turn to present, I stood up and talked about my experience with wealth magic. We ended up finishing early so my colleague, his brother and I walked to the bus stop together. They were about to head down the staircase I found myself in but I steered them in the other direction, reminding them (and myself) that it was my high school after all and I happened to know an athletics carnival was going to be taking place there and that I knew of another exit. We arrived long before our buses were due to, so we had some coffee while we waited together. Incidentally, I also visualised my wealth entity with me throughout the pathworking. He is adorable, quite like a child, always filled with wonder and amazement.
My interpretation that this dream is asking me to stand my ground was tested quite viciously today. A Masters student of mine just received his final mark for last semester and it was a disastrous mark because my lecturer accidentally left off a digit in one of his essays’ mark. Panicked, he travelled into campus to see her and incidentally found out about all the marks I awarded him, including a 5/10 for his participation. He wrote me an infuriated email about him believing he was a stand-out student of his class and accused me of under-marking him all semester. This student is rude, aggressive and self-important and I allowed myself to be intimidated into considering conceding to his demand to increase his mark.
Since then, I have considered it deeply and decided that I must continue to stand by my decision to award him the mark I did. As a tutor, I saw my role as going beyond only imparting course content, but also teaching my students the people skills necessary for their future work and life. It is my conviction that this student needs to learn the important lesson that he cannot bully his way through life, demanding higher salaries, better jobs and equally, more marks. He needs to earn his worth. As such, I cannot justifiably award him a higher mark above those of his peers who out-performed him.
However, the final decision, which has not yet been determined, is up to the lecturer.
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Oh my, some of your students are really quite a handful. Ever since high school I had a pet peeve for mark-scabbing students, and especially those who would waste half the class time arguing over a mere one mark. Will you drop a hint to the lecturer that he really deserves 5/10? If he gets his way, I fear that he’ll be back next year with double the attitude.
Fiona—I think especially in high school, it has a lot to do with the parents. If they push their children for more marks (e.g. “Oh, you only received 99%?”) then that child learns really quick that half an hour of wasting class time can be the difference between their parent’s approval and disapproval. I bombarded the poor lecturer with emails! I first explained why he received the mark he did, then asked her if she thinks it’s best we just roll over on this one and give him the extra 1-2 marks anyway, then went back and stood my ground and said I have to insist he deserves no more than 5/10.
This student is actually quite good at being contrite when he needs to swindle things from his superiors, but his pettiness shines through rather evidently. He wrote me a long email after my first response that in some ways accepted his own fault but also articulately persuaded why he felt he deserved more, without imposing his sense of self-importance on me. After I read that email, I actually began to think he is not as disrespectful as he seems. Unfortunately, he couldn’t help himself and sent a further angry email, cc’ed the lecturer, that basically threatened us that he would appeal unless we increased his mark.
You are totally right. If he does get his increase, he’ll spend the rest of his life demanding and complaining his way through it.