One of my teachers uses the F-word a lot and it's driving me INSANE. It's a WRITING course, he should have enough words in his vocabulary other than F. Also, I was brought up to think that it's rude, and I can't help losing all respect for a TEACHER when he uses it so casually. Why can't my teacher be like Alice's Geography professors? I bet Alice never has to put up with this sort of unprofessional foul-mouthed immaturity.
I have two teachers who teach us side-by-side for most of the time, but I don't think they're well-matched. They often seem to misunderstand each other, they argue about trivialities while we sit and listen, and there's a lot of ego involved. There's so much ego in the room when they teach that it's physically painful, I can see their low self-esteems and wounded children battling each other as they discuss the Act Two turning point of Jaws, and it's ugly.
It is much harder than I had expected to tolerate a 22 year old man's view on the world when you are forced to sit beside him from 9am to 5pm for 4 days in a row. I didn't say a WORD, I swear, when he presented "Point Break" to the class and explained why it was "heaps good". But when I had to be involved in a group discussion of "Dirty Dancing" and he said that it was a failure of a movie because the stakes weren't high enough (stop to take a breath) because "no father would really freak out that much if his daughter told him she had sex for the first time, I mean....she's like 17 right...it's not like she's 14" (another deep breath). Well. I couldn't hold back then and I spoke up. So there.
The guy whose ambition it is to be the youngest ever super-successful television writer? Well, he's now voicing concerns about how he might be setting himself up for a fall because people may assume that he's peaked early and not expect him to have a long-lasting career. Right.
I find myself sitting in that class and PINING, truly PINING for my blogging community. I sit there and I think of each and every one of you, every blogger and every commentbox I have ever read, and I wish that you were there beside me. I miss the meeting of like minds, the creativity, the humour, the respect, the love of life, the truthfulness of my little blogland. This transition into the real world has hit me hard I'm afraid.
Yes, it is 2am, yes, I am going to have some chamomile tea and then return to bed. Thanks for listening.
E xxxx
20 comments:
Crass youth, that's what you are experiencing. Your commenters, including me, have been through a bunch of what life has to throw at them. Your classmates need another twenty or thirty years of seasoning.
Speak up and speak loud. Younger people can be rude and of course I agree with Kmkat thoughts.
Get your beauty rest.
I would have sat next to you. Rolling my eyes.
This doesn't surprise me. I teach the kids who are a year away from joining your class.
Lovely kids, most of them, but they truly have No Idea about a lot of things!
It is a tricksy position to be in undoubtedly. I do feel for you Miss E. Will it count if you know we are there with you in spirit?
I should make a similar comment to the lecturer if I were you, it is brilliant. You manage to stroke his ego and impugn his intelligence at the same time.
I agree with Frogdancer. The only excuse is that it will pass. Time is on their side. Of the ubiquitous know-it-all-youths, I mean.
Since I'm 45 I can use words without being totally certain about the spelling because I hummble enough to realize that I might be wrong.
Be strong, Eleanor! Soon they'll ask you to teach.
Ugh, I so agree about teachers swearing. I really don't approve of it. Worse, I've started tutoring this semester and I have students who think that's appropriate language for a university classroom. I haven't yet figured out how to deal with that.
I hear you. I'm in a class this semester with a loud mouthed Marxist who thinks the rest of the class lives for his tiresome rants about the uprising of the oppressed masses and how studying the motives behind the historical movements we're examining is a waste of our time.
The tutor listens politely with gritted teeth and a fixed smile then moves on, but he pipes up again three minutes later.
(Thank you for allowing me space to have my own little school rant in your commentbox. I feel better now).
ps. see you in five weeks! (I'm going to do a weekly countdown in your commentbox now).
Gah. We were idiots as students. I told you about that elegant mature student on my course? I wonder what she thought of us, I wonder what judgement was going on under that wonderful white chignon.
I remember a girl sitting in a tutorial holding forth about how the Industrial Revolution wouldn't have made that much difference to people's lives, because London was such a big place and they wouldn't really have noticed all the extra people.
Dear Eleanor, when I see you in 5 weeks time you will have to tell me about your rebuttal on the Dirty Dancing argument, cos I really want to hear it. Meantime, could you have a word with the school co-ordinator about the teacher behaviour? It doesn't sound very professional to me.
Yours in middle-aged wisdom
Stomperx
just as i was about to de-lurk i read the comment by the coffee lady ....and spat my ####ing coffee all over my ####ing keyboard...####, ####, ####.
pardon me? and a blanket apology to anyone out there who is sitting next either of my sons at Uni - feel free to throttle them at any time.
eleanor, your writing lifts my day.
thank-you
linda
oh. my.
I doubt I could have kept my mouth shut.
seriously.
it just means that your screen play will be that much better dear E.
Battling egos would get a little tiresome, you poor thing.
Hugs from me and don't fret, you can do it and it WILL BE WORTH IT.
I would roll my eyes too.
And possibly ask them to mind their language, because I'm like that. Especially after being a public servant for five years.
Five weeks, oh the countdown begins!!!!
now. I am curious as to the countdown...
I've always worried about peaking too early myself. That's why I just sit around all day reading blogs. The momentum is building. I can feel it.
It makes me so cranky these young 'uns get these opportunities.
And I think we all know that 20 year old would have been smacked. Hard. Had I been in the room.
And the eye-rolling? Would have been so loud.
and Eurolush - move over, I can almost smell the discovery of my brilliance being revealed.
my WV is ugglati and I've decided that I'm going to bring that into my daily lexicon. Ahh, I am in a particularly ugglati mood today.
Perfect.
Ah E, I felt as though I was sitting next to you in the class.
Your classmates need more life experiences and their immature reasoning is maybe understandable. Having you in the class can only add to their learning. However, the teachers are being paid to teach and don't seem to be, do they? Pontificating comes to mind. I wonder if anyone has ever spoken to them about their behaviour?
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