The Cold


The good news is that the baby finally had a good night over the weekend, sleeping for 5 hours in a row (!) at night (!!). The bad news is that I'm sick with a cold, so I wasn't able to sleep.

Instead of snuggling in my nice warm bed and trying to take a nap and eat chicken soup, I dragged my sorry self to work today. The Public Health Agency of Canada recommends this: "If you're sick, stay home!" What about the Centers for Disease Prevention and Control? "Stay home when you are sick..." And even the U of A says, "Stay home when you are sick."

Yeah, right.

If I had some kind of substitute or something, suuure I'd stay home. But I don't, and midterms are coming up. What, should I delay the midterm? How will I fit in all my lectures in the classes that remain? Should I just skip that lecture content? But I've already made up the exams and had them printed.

What do you think? Should a sick instructor still come in to teach? Do you appreciate the effort that's being made? Or would you prefer that the sicko stay home so that you don't get what's going around, too? (Yes, I figure you'd prefer a day off from my long-winded, boring, blah-blah-blah. But try to put that aside for a moment.)

Now I'm going to drag my sorry self back home and change some diapers...
Apologies in advance if I cough into the microphone in class.

Why aren't you studying?

3 comments:

Anonymous said...
on

I noticed you seemed a little sore-throated monday - get well soon!

I am also sick, and students don't get extensions for colds. I'm not sure students or teachers are permitted by their schedules to properly care for illness and injury.

It occurred to me yesterday that University might be one of the more unhealthy experiences of my life.

Karsten A. Loepelmann said...
on

@practicalphilosopher: Hey, last term I gave an extension for a term paper because a student was really sick. It's funny, but most students who miss my exams have exactly the same symptoms: vomiting and/or diarrhea. What are the odds? Hmm, of course, it may have something to do with the fact that you can't prove you have those symptoms.

("OK, now vomit for me please. No? OK then, how about showing me your diarrhea?")

I never missed an exam for a cold or the flu. In retrospect, I probably should have taken better care of myself. Heck, maybe I should take better care of myself now. Class cancelled! ;-)

Anonymous said...
on

personally, I don't like to miss exams even if i'm sick (unless i'm really really sick). i plan to have a certain schedule to take care of everything, and if i dont write that exam and get it over with when i plan to do it, my entire schedule gets screwed up

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