"Is there anything for me to do today?"

In life, one of the main "directives" of a student is to learn. Many times, it's not just whatever subject is on the syllabus. Sometimes the teacher has other things that they need you to learn.

Sometimes, that includes how to behave properly.

One of my students is a college student, and this seems to give her a sense of "being better" than most of the other students. Often, she'll say something like "Can I sit in the other room? Some of the ladies are kind of loud.", or "The ladies are acting a bit 'ghetto'. Can I work in the corner?" or she'll make comments like "Oh that shouldn't include me." or she'll throw a "you know" at the end of something like she's a peer instead of a student. She'll walk out of the room, to go into another teacher's room and say something like "I already know this subject.", or "I thought it would be okay, since... you know." Sometimes she makes a personal phone call and says "Oh... that was about a job opening."

Well, as usually happens in these situations, she got called on it. They called her into the main office and spoke with her about her behavior. After which, she was all upset, and showed it. She came up to me and asked why I complained about her. But it really wasn't a complaint, it was my feedback on how she's been behaving in classes.

So now she comes in every morning and asks "Is there any work I should be doing?", or she'll ask for permission for everything, to go to the bathroom, to make a copy, to throw out a piece of paper, sneeze... everything.

She's being "overly compliant". I don't care. It's not like I'm going to cry because she's hurting my feelings by being polite.

But my point is, often we learn lessons in life about other things when we don't expect it, and if you're unwilling to accept being corrected or tought something, then you'll be that person who people look at and think "That's ghetto." or "Wow, how did s/he graduate?"

Point is, no one is perfect, be willing to be wrong once in a while. And learn to be better.