So, I’m taking an online class which obviously requires you to take your exams online, but gives you a full week to do so. In this specific class you can use your book and open the test and save your answers as many times as you like until you submit the exam at the end of the week. Being the good, “responsible” student that I am, I decided not procrastinate and started the test on Monday even though it wasn’t due until Sunday. I did about half and decided to leave the rest for this morning keeping in mind I had until Sunday to keep looking over it. This morning, Wednesday, I go to finish the exam and see its missing! Not only have my answers disappeared, but the exam has been switched. There are completely new questions, including the essay questions I had worked so hard on preparing answers for. Immediately I email my teacher explain the situation and she tells me that she never posted the exam until this morning even though she had planned to post it on Monday. Basically I realized that since my teacher is ahem, lazy, technologically challenged, she was using the same website from the previous semester and had forgotten to deactivate the link for the previous test. Honestly, I was annoyed as I had wasted a lot of time taking the wrong test. I felt like I was being punished for being a good student. If I had procrastinated like everyone else in my class, I wouldn’t have wasted my time. Eventually, like most things, I got over it.
Please keep in mind I have been in this class for three weeks and the teacher just posted up the syllabus YESTERDAY. She also posted up the wrong book on her website which many people went out and bought so now her homework and readings are inconsistent. Oh did I mention she sends daily emails that say if we don’t do our homework we are going to get dropped from her class? What is this? Kindergarten?
I take online classes because my anti-social self avoids social interaction as much as possible, especially in regards to Ghetto community college GE classes. Being the snob that I am I just don’t want to listen to a teacher who is ranting on and on about her love for pecan pie, Bob the Builder, or snail mucus. I want to do my work, learn the material, and get my grade. I expect myself to be FOCUSED and on top of my work. I truly believe that you get what you give. I don’t use the excuse that “Oh, I’m a girl, I don’t need an education, I can just marry a rich guy”, “Oh, I never really got a good high school education so how can I just jump into college”, “I’m going to have to take classes I really hate and I won’t be able to succeed in those subjects so what’s the point anyways”, “I’m going to sacrifice my social life to do well, people are going to think I’m a nerd”. Trust me, I have heard a lot of theses excuses before, and many much more creative ones. In the end of the day you have to do what is right for you. I do agree with the viewpoint that college is not for everyone, and from a religious standpoint I can see how damaging it can be. But in the end of the day, here I am, waiting to learn, willing to EARN my A.
They say, “Ask, and you shall receive”. Well I’m here to say “Na’aaaaaaaaah, LIEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSS”. I’m asking for an education and what am I receiving? Overcrowded classrooms, budget cuts, impatient and incompetent teachers. If my teachers can’t even post things up on time why should they expect me to do my work in a timely fashion either? I bet a lot of students are going to hand in late assignments in this class and get away with it. This is not helping anyone! We are supposed to be the future professionals of America and our educators can’t even teach us basic responsibility and accountability.
This accountability does not only apply to the way the curriculum is set. I find that many teachers have a hard time admitting their mistakes and being accountable for the material they teach. For example, I recently took a quiz in a class and answered a question according to the way it was written in the book even though my gut feeling told me the teacher wanted us to write another answer. Of course I got points off and I went to show my teacher the answer in the book. When I showed her the book, my professor honestly could not refute my argument, but she refused to give me the points as “you are correct, but don’t worry, there will be plenty of opportunities to get back points later”. I WANT MY DARN POINTS! I took the time to actually study, I knew the most accurate answer and yet I was penalized for it. If I had gone for the most logical answer instead of the most scientifically correct one I would have got a 100%.
Same thing happened last semester. I got a correct answer on a test but for some reason the professor marked it as incorrect. He did this on several other students’ papers too. When I pointed it out to him, he gave my fellow classmate, who had gotten a D on the test, her points, but he would not give them to me even though we had written the same exact answer. He told me that my test score was already high enough and there was no need for me to get more points, even though it was his mistake, not mine. Ummmmmmm, hi. It is very easy for me to just sit back and fail a 5 week Intro to Organic and Biochemistry class, trust me. Basically once again I was being punished for being a good student and for pointing out the mistake of a teacher.
Of course I know this does not only happen to me and this is not going to be the last time it happens either. Life is “unfair”. I just hope that I don’t carry these negative experiences over to other aspects of my life. I notice that many people, including myself do this. We push away our responsibilities hoping that we will be rewarded with something better. We don’t lose the weight because we are still waiting for that magic pill. We don’t marry Mr. Right because we are waiting for Mr. Perfect. We have been taught that we must be ahead of the game, but we have also been conditioned to believe that there is always something better out there if we just wait for it. What if we could actually live in this very moment (all hail Nicki Minaj), and embrace every single element of our lives, the good and the bad in one inextricably intertwined (all hail Mrs. Heyman) package. Stop waiting and start doing! Yes, there will be times when you think “What if I had waited…” and yes there are certain decisions you should definitely not jump into, but sometimes you just gotta take care of YOU. Mothers, trust me, your kids need you to take a day off to take care of yourselves. Yes, you may not end up making supper that day but in the long run you will probably be a lot more efficient and productive. Students develop a strong work ethic and study habits, yes it may be hell now, but eventually you will be rewarded for it when you get that top job. So you might have guessed by now that this post was written with a specific person in mind and you wouldn’t be incorrect in assuming so. Yes, this post was written for ME. Message received. Time to stop using this blog as a way to procrastinate, and get back to those books.
Side note- reading this over I see that I kind of jump from point to point and it is not very easy to see how I got from one point to assuming you are not one of those characters who lives inside my head. If you don’t care, then perfect. But if you are looking for clarification feel free to comment below :)
