So, today, I'm helping one of my students with his homework. He starts asking me all these questions about why I'm in grad school, why I want to be a sociologist, etc. So, I asked him why he was a sociology major. In typical slacker fashion he said "I don't know. Because I heard it was the easiest." I resisted the urge to throw-up on him and instead convinced him that sociology was not east. Now, this kid is an interesting character. He's a baseball player (I'll let you fill in your own thoughts on student athletes) and his first name is most assuredly a girl's name. Anyway, he has yet to turn in the LAST homework, which was due at minimum, two weeks ago. My late policy is minus 10% for everyday the homework is late. So, this morning, he says, "Do you think it's still possible for me to get any points on that last homework?" I said, "Well, you know the late penalty, so what do you think???" Assuming he got everything right to begin with, um...yeah, he'd still lose about 140% just in late penalties. If I had quicker wit, I would've said, "This class is not Blockbuster. Late fees matter." Anyway, the point is...what do you do with student like this? I asked him if he understood what this weeks homework was about (sampling methods). I said, "Do you understand the concept of a sample?" He said, "No, not really." I said, "Would you like me to explain it to you again?" He said, "No, not really." So, I said, "Too bad, I'm going to, because it's important." I guess if someone doesn't want to learn, you can't force them. So frustrating........