The good , the bad and the nobodies.....

I'm talking about students and today I will start witrh the bad ones !

Recently, one of my classes had a report writing presentation . Yes , you've guessed it---it didn't go smoothly, just as I had expected.

The presentationwas organized into two sessions of 9 students per session but ALL students of both sessions MUST submit their completed report.

One of the students came to see me when I was still in the office to submit her report as she was ill and had to see the doctor. That is fine, at least she made an effort to come early to inform me.

So , at 8.50 am , I was already in the class room. There were 4 students and we decided to move to another class because of projector and computer problems.

By 9.10am. I had the first presenter, then another and another. By 10.10am, 6 students had done their presentations. But I was still waitng for the other three to appear

By 10.50am , we decided to call it off because student of the class we 'borrowed' were waiting outside the class.

I went back to my table and there was a report submitted by one of the students who were supposed to do the presentation that morning. What the...... ! I said to myself !. I had no choice but to reject the report with a not-so-kind note on its cover. (Can you blame me for that ?).

What does he take me for ? ...not attending the class, not presenting the report as required, leaving the report on my table without any word of apology or information and disappearing !!??
There is not one single reason for me to accept and mark the report !

Then there was an sms from another student apologising and saying that I dismiss the class early and therefor the presentation could not be held -- insinuating that it was MY fault ?

I called the person immediately and gave a piece of my mind ! After an apology from the person, I gave up half an hour of my lunch break to allow the person to present the report. So at least that was settled.

So now what about the third person ? Yes what about her ? Not a message , not anything !As far as I am concerned this person does not deserve a second chance unless it can be proven that she was hospitalised or something very acceptable as her past attendance in the class is also nothing to be proud of. !

So what do I think of the first case and the third case ? I dont know whether the family paid the 5 figure tuition fees or whether its paid through a loan from a Government body. I feel that that amount could be put to better use if it is loaned out to more deserving students !

In my almost 2 years of teaching in this programme AND close to a thousand students that I had taught, this is the first 'juvernile' attitude problem that I had had to face !

I mean , these are POST-DIPLOMA programmes, for God sake ! You would expect a sense of responsibility, accountability and maturity ! Sure, I understand students are not perfect.

But I knew MANY , and will know many more who are good students. There are those who have won my respect and those who doesnt even deserve or worth a second look.

There are many students here who have good control of their life . They are able to balance their lifestyle and yet remain focussed. I have always been for good relationship and rapport with students---but there are some who take advantage of friendliness for weakness.

Now-jobs are hard to come by now , but if there are those who still remain unfocussed, childish, playful, immatured, irresponsible and just plain hopeless--- what hope is there to get a good employment. Sooner or later your dark side will take control again and what !!!!!!????????........

Look out for my posting on the GOOD ONES in the near future...