In this time of great national turmoil, when the very pillars of our society seem to be crashing down around our heads on a daily--no, make that hourly basis, it seems petty to gripe about my students' difficulty with alphabetization, but that's where we are right now: I can't listen to the news without getting annoyed, angry, or appalled (and that's just the adjectives starting with A), so let's attend to something more manageable: the alphabet.
I hasten to note that not all students have trouble managing the alphabet, or not even most of them, but a not insignificant number could not figure out how to alphabetize entries in a Works Cited and had trouble locating a book in the library stacks despite having taken a photo of the call number. I can't find the F section, they said, but that's because they were standing in front of a row clearly labeled P and could not figure out which way to go to find F. But all these books say F on the label--how do I know which one is the right one? That's when we look at the next letter. And then what?
I've been told that this is Tutor Appreciation Week, but I do not believe our tutoring center will appreciate it if I ask them to tutor my students in how the alphabet works. I don't know if they be appalled, angry, and annoyed, or if they'd move on to befuddled, bemused, and bewildered, but someone needs to take these students in hand and introduce them to the wonders of the ABC's, and I fear that someone will have to be me.
One of these days I'll end up wandering the library stacks while singing the alphabet song incessantly under my breath, and who will be bewildered then? (Look for me in the P section.)
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