Did students use to say, “I need you to pass me because I am graduating next semester and do not have space in my schedule to repeat this course?” [Emphasis added]
Axé.
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coldhearted scientist وداد 
No. But I got ripped in a recent evaluation by someone who sat in my office and claimed the The Spanish Department had destroyed her love of the language. She didn’t come to class, do her homework, or ask for help until a few weeks before the end of the semester, but I was a Very Bad Professor because of my evil ways.
That one is such a classic. When I was a child, people would say it to the Emeritus Professor and then “leave” the university for the community college. They would then visit at home (it was a small town and many were also parents of my schoolmates) and say the community college had Restored Their Love Of The Language.
P.S. There was also the graduate student whose thesis committee I quit. I was the chair; the other two members were the only two who were still willing to be there; one finally quit in frustration so I did too, knowing already there would be no replacement for her. The student said it was my fault he was “not being allowed to discover his identity” (which is what finishing his thesis, had he been willing to do so, would have allowed him to do, or so he claimed).
The thesis is almost done. Did an all but final revision today. I have only to tempt fate by putting in the footnotes. It’s very awkward to do them manually. I have three examiners lined up. Is it holiday time?
Yay! Yes, holiday time!
Gee, Professor Z, can’t you understand that you most accomodate your students, for are they not, each and every one, the center(s) of the universe? How are they brought up that they can continue to believe the world revolves around them well after they have left infancy?
Because they are Republicans, Christians, and Latin American oligarchs. This last population DOES have the world revolve around them; the first two have been taught to believe it should and are filled with resentment that it does not.
The student said it was my fault he was “not being allowed to discover his identity”
Maybe the problem was that there was no real identity to discover? I think it must be possible to feel an absence of something vital in one, and thereby conclude that there must be something to look for, something to be “discovered”. But what if that notion is simply in error? Perhaps what is required is that an identity be CREATED and developed through persistence and hard work.
I am returning to ponder on the old fashioned notion of “character building” right now, which seems to have had all sorts of things going for it.
Well, to create an identity was what this student wanted but there were reasons why he was blocked from working a useful direction. So he blamed me.
I had a student tell me she was pre-med and thus I HAD to pass her or she wouldn’t get into medical school. I’m thinking I don’t want my doctor to get through school because of grade inflation!
Exactly. For some reason the instructors are less neurotic about this than the professors, at least in my place. One of them said something brilliant the other day: “These people are not competent and someone has to tell them — before they f*** up NASA!”