From: Stephanie da Silva <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: Fri, 25 Jun 1999 21:41:57 -0500 (CDT)
Very recently, I received a piece of email that went:
"I'm a student and for an assignment I'm supposed to j0in a
listserv (sic). I have no idea what this is, so will you please
tell me everything I need to know?
Sheesh...that's particulary bad if they ask you what a listserv is. I've
had plenty who just joined then left. Really pissed me off back when I was
doing the list by hand. My policy (which I really need to put on my
website) is that students are welcome to join for the CONTENT of the list
(many do) as long as they unsub themselves when they are done. I do not
"allow" (in quotes because I have no control over it) students to join and
leave merely for practice in joining and leaving lists.
Though this isn't much worse than all the letters I get from students (and
sometimes parents!!) saying "I have to write a paper on the immune system,
please send me information. It's due on Tuesday." Never mind that my
list/site is not about the immune system (it's a support group for people
with illness related to the immune system...big difference...and very
obvious to anyone who reads the front page of the site or the list blurb).
I always write back explaining that I am not paid to help them but their
librarian is and that's where they should go (if I get a truely specific
and related question I will answer it...I also answer personal questions,
no matter how silly ("should I take antibiotics for my viral infection?")).
The responses I get from my polite letters are truely amazing. Some of the
students yell at me or give me a sarcastic "thanks for helping." Some say
their teachers required them to do the research on the internet (which is
fine if they actually look up webpages and read them). Worst of all, many
of the students indicate they have written large numbers of people for help
(they thank me for at least giving them the curtosy of a reply, unlike all
the others, despite how unhelpful I was).
I think the worst example I've ever seen was on rec.gardens where a
European parent wrote asking people to tell her what Plains Indians ate
before Europeans arrived. This was for her child's school report. I wrote
saying: send your child to the local library and stop doing their homework
for them.
Cyndi
--
_______________________________________________________________________________
"There's nothing wrong with me. Maybe there's Cyndi Norman
something wrong with the universe." (ST:TNG) [EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.consultclarity.com/
_________________ Owner of the Immune Website & Lists http://www.immuneweb.org/
