AAGGHH!! I just CAN'T STAND IT!!

Monday 18th January 2010
I'm feeling in a VERY intolerant mood today. So this could be quite a rant. Watch out please! Stand back, strap yourself down and buckle up!!

Oh, you say, but you have so few weeks left! Why do you care? What does it matter? Well it DOES matter, though yes, I agree, I no longer care about what happens here.

I am just SO SICK of it! Sick of talking when nobody listens, sick of repeating what was clear the first time, sick of explaining over and over WHY it is that “absent” means “not here in class or late” no matter WHAT the excuse is. I am tired of the lethargy, of the avoidance of work at all costs on the students' part. And when they “get it real” from me in the form of a bad mark for their writing (which they DESERVE), they complain and moan and fuss like they have some DIVINE RIGHT to a full mark. Even those who DO get a good mark complain about WHY they do not have HIGHER!! No no – do NOT say it is because they are ambitious. THAT word does not enter the vocabulary to describe ANYONE living in this part of the world!

And they think they our friends. They believe they are like “brothers” with us teachers because, by doing this, they suppose that we will feel better about this apparent “close relationship” with them and therefore be less inclined to give a bad mark because they are “family”.

Every morning in my pre-clinical class as I am marking the register, some of them gather round my desk at the front. I cannot imagine WHAT is interesting in an attendance sheet since it is just names and X's. And there are certain individuals who know FULL WELL that they WERE absent the previous day of for one part of the day just gone. But up they come to take a look. Maybe they are hoping I didn't SEE that they were missing, and when they see I did, of course, mark them absent it is, “Teacher, WHY absent, Why absent??”, as if their non-presence in the class is nothing or that they have a good excuse.

I've said before and I'll say again to them. If you are NOT HERE or you are LATE, then you are ABSENT with NO EXCEPTIONS! If they have a good excuse then they should take this to the Registry and explain. One thing that they DO here is give out Warning Letters after a certain number of absences. I believe that they are allowed THREE warning letters and then they can be booted out (but, in practice, they never ARE).

After that class was done and I was going home I saw one of today's absentees. “Teacher,” he asked me, “absent today?”. “Yes of COURSE you are!”, I said. “No no, teacher, not absent, I was in the bank”.

I just kept on walking. What more was there to say?

Oh, and let's go back in time to the first classes of the day.

Two days ago, one student let it slip that apparently they have their Computing Final Exam on Tuesday. Exactly WHAT TIME of day is not clear – one time they said in the morning, today they said it was to be in the afternoon. In any case, neither the Computing teacher nor ANYONE ELSE has bothered to inform the English department. And seeing as this will go into MY lesson time then they SHOULD have informed us. Oh, and not forgetting the fact too that it is the WRONG WEEK for Final Exams – all of which should be taking place NEXT WEEK.

As always, what they wanted to do was get out of my lesson(s) for extra study time for this Final Exam. Well this REALLY annoyed me! WHY THE HELL should I lose MY lesson time for some ignorant Computing teacher who can't do the right thing and LET US KNOW?

I said to them, look, I know NOTHING of this Computing exam. If you choose NOT to come to my lesson and want to revise for Computing, then that is up to you but I will mark you absent as normal. Well, it seems that whenever the issue of being marked absent or not comes up, it is like explaining Shakespeare to a newborn baby. It DOESN'T GO IN!! Well, they and I argued and fussed about this point for half the first lesson. Round and round we went with me repeating the same fact and they saying things like, “If you mark us absent, it will affect our grades”, and, “So maybe just mark us for one lesson absent and not two” (which I actually HAD done before in a similar situation, though regretted it many student moans later). Oh, they also said pathetic things like, “Teacher, after five lessons with you we will be tired! How can we do this exam?”

WHY should I "crash" my lesson for someone else who can't communicate? We ALSO have the English Final Exam next week! I asked them if they were then not going to come to MY lessons for this same reason next week. No answer. I told them, “Look, you are STUDENTS! YOU do your work, YOU do your revision! Don't sleep, go out or play silly games when there is WORK to do! When you have something to do, YOU GOTTA DO IT! NOT in lesson time but in the PROPER time at home and during the day when not in class! THIS is what being a student is all about – ORGANISE YOUR TIME!”

Oooooohh they didn't like THAT! But these shits - they do nothing and then expect that I should sacrifice MY TIME just cos they're too lazy to do basic student things!!

There was one more thing this afternoon. At the start of the afternoon lesson, one student and his friend came and said to me, “Teacher please delete his absence for Saturday because if you do not then the college will kick him out”. I said I would absolutely NOT do this because he WAS indeed absent, and in addition he does nothing in class except sleep, talk loudly and come late. His written work is either copied from others or done with the MINIMUM thought and effort possible. “Come on, come on teacher pleeease! Do this for him! Why are you so hard with us??”. Well I THOUGHT to myself (though didn't say), “Because you are a lazy good-for-nothing bunch of SHITS!”

Well he WAS absent! And they want me to LIE for them and pretend he WAS in class. And I should do it because, "other teachers WOULD delete this in the college". I told them, “Well i am NOT those others!! You will get NOTHING from me!!

“Ohh teacher teacher WHY are you so hard??” etc. etc. and this went on. “Look,” I said, “Maybe HE WILL LEARN AND REMEMBER for next year or for his repeated year NOT to sleep, NOT to be late, NOT to be absent and to DO SOME WORK IN CLASS!”.

Why the DAMN HELL should I do any favours for a lazy SHIT like THIS?? If he was a half-decent student, then he wouldn't be IN this position to begin with!

I will NEVER EVER understand such people and such attitudes to learning and to study. And I say ONCE AGAIN …. HOW OH HOWWWW does ANYBODY last MORE than ONE YEAR in a place like THIS?

Well I think the answer to THAT is that you must be in your late 50's, with NO other job prospects on ANY horizon and with no other alternative than to TAKE THIS SHIT on the CHIN!

I, however, will NOT understand it, will NOT tolerate it and will NOT GIVE IN!

I am glad of one thing though. When we get to Wednesday, the “month count” will drop to zero and it is only a count of mere WEEKS until I am out of here and back to Normal Land. Ohh and how GOOD it will be when it is the “week count” that ALSSO drops to zero and thee will only be a matter of DAYS until the Final Exit.

And may GLORY BE ON THAT DAY!!!!!