I usually work at home on Mondays (since it’s easier to get in the 16 hours you need to work if you don’t have to spend two of them operating a motor vehicle). But today, to accommodate a student who needed to make up a quiz, I came in to the office.
The student arrived about 20 minutes ahead of our prearranged time, but I was happy to let him get started.
About 15 minutes after that, a colleague asked if I could strategize with him about a collaborative project that will involve some serious grant-writing in the next six weeks. In order not to disturb my quiz-taker with our talking, we went to the department conference room, just down the hall. First, of course, I informed my student that I’d be just down the hall if he had any questions. He indicated his awareness of this information.
Maybe 12 minutes later, I returned to my office, whose door was still open. There was no sign of the student making up the quiz. Nor, for that matter, was there any sign of his quiz paper. However, there is a folder on the desk where he was sitting that appears to be his, and a set of earbuds on the floor near the chair in which I left him sitting.
So … does this means that he abandoned his plan to make up the quiz? Or that he took a bathroom break only to meet with a bad end in the men’s room? Or that he was abducted (or disintegrated) by aliens?
As a practical matter, how long ought I to remain in my office to see if he’s actually going to return?
He left earbuds there? Indicates leaving in a very big rush. Alien Abduction is the most parsimonious solution to this quandary.
I agree, it sounds like an alien abduction.
I’d wait 24 hours then call his parents. They should be the first to know.
Are they decent earbuds?
Whatever happened, I wouldn’t accept the quiz if he took it with him.
Earbuds not attached to anything? Seems odd.
As a general rule, when students are abducted by aliens, spontaneously combust, or run screaming into traffic during an exam, is the instructor entitled to to keep their stuff? In some fields this could be a significant supplement to the meager pay.
Could the student be sufficiently unfamiliar with your office building layout to have gone the wrong way down the hall or taken an incorrect turn?
The building is two levels, with a single corridor on each. I was, literally, three doors down from my office, in a conference room with an open door, speaking in a manner that I expect was quite audible from the hall.
I am now wondering what else aliens might have abducted from my office.
I am in agreement with SUe: whatever the reason for the student’s absence, I wouldn’t accept the quiz. Perhaps I am just suspicious of students (middle schoolers will do that to a person), but have to wonder if he took off to get someone to help him on the quiz. I suppose that it is possible that he gave up half way through, but why leave the ear buds?
Did he ever turn up?
I think if you follow Dickens on spontaneous combustion, there is usually a globule of some sort left behind. Ooh, speaking of left behind, maybe raptured?
No globules (or odors) that would suggest spontaneous human combustion.
And, it was my understanding that when people are raptured, their clothes stay behind. The student was wearing more than earbuds when he arrived to take the quiz, ergo I’m going to rule out rapture as a likely cause of disappearance.
All joking aside, I would feel better getting an email from the student to let me know what the situation is. While I have a guess or two as to what may have happened, I haven’t been able to completely dismiss some worries.
I find that in good and bad, usually bad, they just don’t let you know. I know that not a single one of my students that dropped a class, or just didn’t show up for the test when sick or when withdrawing from school or anything has let me know. I always first assume that I’ve lost their test or something has happened and then I e-mail them. In some case the e-mail is never returned, and only when they disappear from my online roster am I led to presume that they’ve just dropped the class.
I feel for them though. I bust on them, but they are just a bunch of kids.
My first inclination was to agree with Larry Moran that this definitely sounds like an alien abduction, but upon further reflection, I’m not so sure. Is it possible that your student was raptured? Was he one of the saved ones while you and your colleague were left behind?
You mean to say we’re all gonna be naked upon rapture? What about my shoes? I can’t go without my shoes!
So, did you ever find out what happened?