True Prediction

I wish I wasn't so good at making predictions because I knew from the very first class in August James would not finish successfully.  I could see it in the way he answered questions but never wrote anything down, by the smirk when I collected homework and he had none to hand in (although he did do one assignment late), by the way he sat in the back, arms folded and body relaxed, and by the way he did not hand in the pretty simple take home exams.  James scored 96 on his first exam and I told him that scared me.  His overconfidence wouldn't help as the class got harder.  I told him stories of previous students he reminded me over.  I could see he knew what I was talking about.

James did not show up for tonight's exam.  Since he has not handed in homework this is not a grade to drop so a zero will be averaged in its place.  I know there are problems he faces outside of class but he made a commitment to school that he I just not keeping.  I wish I could write that I hope he learns from experience  but I know from my experience it will be years, or maybe never until he learns.  I did my best to prevent his failing but it didn't help.  I could not prevent what I knew was inevitable.