What are they thinking??

This is a 'conversation' I had with a student of mine recently via email:

Student:

Hello Jared,

I have a problem with the last hw #6 correction. I do not believe it's fair for getting marked a point off for just putting problem #9 before #8. I understand you didn't like that but you could have just noted it and I will try not doing it again. But taking off a point for just getting the order wrong for one isn't a big thing. Sometimes the hw posted by the Prof. is given in the wrong order as well.

Me:

The point is taken off because it takes me longer to grade the HW when they are not in order. I have a systematic way that I grade and having to sort through the problems makes grading a more difficult task. The HW that is posted is put in the same order in which I grade it (1, 2, 3, …). If you do not want to miss the point, please put your HW in the correct order. You are at least a junior or senior in college and are expected to turn in work that is of the same level. Not putting them in order is disrespectful of my time and is something I would expect from freshman or possibly sophomores. I have found that without drawing student’s attention to the problem of
putting HW in the incorrect order is only effective when points are taken off, otherwise they see it as inconsequential. It has consequences for me and also for you. I am sorry that you missed that point for something so simple. Please be more careful in the future with your work.

Student:

Jared,

Actually I am a graduate student and haven't had to turn in hw every week like this in a very long time. Sorry for taking so much of your time to notice I mistakenly skipped a problem and did it right after. I am not a freshmen and didn't need you to take off a point for me to notice a note you could have left. And yes the first hw postings the prof put up were not always in the right order. For example HW set #3 has a number of problems in the wrong order. I didn't want to make this a big deal. I was just saying you could have pointed it out rather then deducting a point for something so little when the hw takes soo much time to do.

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Other than finding this most amusing and quite ironic, I was also appalled that this person is a graduate student. And here I thought it was mostly the undergraduates that were whiny about having to do actual work to get points in a class-forget the fact that as a graduate student the classes you take are usually ones that you need to know the material in because you're going to use it later-if they're not, you have a crappy committee.

C'est la guerre.