Firstly, sorry for the extremely belated blog date… procrastination; thy name is Kiera. 馃檪
To start this deeply heartwarming blog, I haven’t been having the best week. Firstly, myself and Ciara lost the Best Best Friends Competition. Not only was it important to us, it was a good distraction to the trials and tribulations of the Leaving Cert. Not a happy camper now that it’s over! 馃檨 Secondly, on a school-related basis… I HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE and did I mention HAAAAAAAAAAAAATE my English teacher. Indeed, it’s horrible to say… but you would have pretty mutual feelings if what happened to me today happened to you. I always speculated she had some sort of beef towards me, but today just cut the mustard. She gave us a comparative to do, something she NEVER fricking told us how to do, and she told us to do it with another person. Eh, HELLO… are we gonna be able to lean over the person we did the comparative with in the Leaving Cert and say
“C’mere, what did we say about yer wan in The Plough&The Stars?”
Stupid, right? But since we were so bad at organising, I ended up diving in and trying to do it myself. I got three or four pages but the deadline was overdue so I handed in what I had done. Now, I got a B in Junior Cert Honours without study (I was rowing a boat in the middle of the lake the day before the Junior Cert… long story) so I would consider myself pretty good at English. The only criticism I was given prior to this was that my paragraphs were too long and not recurrent enough, and that I had slightly drawn-out and confusing sentences (much like this one)… BUT TODAY. WHAT THE ACTUAL FUDGE.
We were doing questions on the wonderfully bland Eavan Boland, when I realised I need my copy back with the introductory paragraph. So I asked for my copy back and she said, in front of the entire class,
“Right, which one of you wrote this, Yvonne or Kiera? I know it was you Kiera. You’re using words that are too big and are in the wrong context, you should use smaller words and simpler sentences.”
or something to that effect. I wasn’t too upset by that, just kind of offended and cheesed off, I sort of just looked at her when she said it and said nothing. I just tried to ignored it and continued to try do a question we were never told how to do… but then she just didn’t know WHERE to fricking stop. A foreign national (who got an E in his Junior Cert in English) must’ve handed up an English question, and she proceeded to say
“That was really good! You’re nearly better than Kiera, what with her big words in the wrong context that should just be using smaller sentences.”
Needless to say, the whole class created a deafening silence. I heard my friend Marco mutter “B*tchy….” which shows I wasn’t overreacting! I think Yvonne was scared to talk to me, she was sitting beside a trembling, biting her lip, tears-in-eyes, lump-in-throat Kiera, who couldn’t look up or speak without bursting into tears. I was humiliated. I was offended. I felt so small. Smaller than I already am, which is positively gnome-ish. I mean, I want to study English in college and she’s telling me that a foreign national is better than me! She wasn’t right in doing that, it was positively bullying.
But now… what to do? I dread every English class now, but it’s the only honours class in our year… I could:
1) Move to the ordinary level class and do honours, but it would consist of a very difficult workload on myself.
2) Tell the year head… who is best friends with my English teacher.
3) Stick it out in the class, and coming home everyday feeling littler and littler
4) Grab a banjo and move to Grafton Street to busk.
Options, options, what should I do?
By the by, sorry if this depressed you. 馃檨 Also, I can’t play the banjo.
Thanks for reading 馃榾
Kiera #2 x
It seems the only way to stop this teacher is to listen to her. Re-read your sentences. Are they out of context? Examiners are way more impressed with simple language used excellently. Give it a try.
And I also have a teacher like that, except I let the humiliation form into complete anger. Assuming you are a good student who never gets into trouble, these teachers are usually shocked when greeted with retaliation from a quiet student. Don’t let them win.
And asking that of the comparative was completely unreasonable. My Biology teacher insists on testing us on experiments we have done and chapters we haven’t covered, just to see what we’ll write. I’d put money on everyone here having a d@*khead of a teacher like that.
Good luck,
Eadaoin
*haven’t
I forgot to re-read. Hypocrite is my middle name. 馃槢
Thanks, I certainly needed a bit of consolation! 馃槢
Y’see, I never considered myself as a mastermind at English, but the only criticism I received prior to her was never based on my grammar, the teacher I had before her loved me AND she had a masters in English.
This one has a degree from back in the 80’s *grumble grumble*… I do take into account what she says though, like I don’t put a big word in a sentence to make it sound better, they just sort of flow from my mind. I know I use words in the wrong context sometimes, but constantly saying it to the class (she did it again today) is uncalled for! 馃槢
Your biology teacher sounds like my English teacher, it’s incredibely annoying, right? Out of all the amazing teachers you get, there’s always one who’s just a bit out of line. What’s worse is that it completely changes your opinion on the subject at hand!! It’s aggravating, because of that teacher I don’t want to do English in college anymore.
Yeah, take account of what they’re saying anyways, but that really isn’t the way to say it.
Personally, I’d say it to her myself that you think it’s out of line, since you’ve got a fairly sound argument in saying that it is. Hopefully she’d stop after that. If not you can always complain to a parent/other teacher about it sure.
Wow, she sounds like a right bundle of laughs, even if her basic point was right or not, that was not the right way to go about it. I understand the frustration! I can teach you to play the banjo if that’d help?
The fact that she belittled me just to help someone else feel better about their English, out loud and cleary in front of the whole class was extremely unjust! 馃槷 Needless to say I wrote an angry letter of complaint today when trying to study Emily Dickinson… >:]
That would be amazing! 馃榾 I used to be obsessed with wanting to learn the Ukelele for awhile actually… for now I’m just a very lazy, very bad bassist. 馃檪
I had a lot of teachers like that in 5th yr – In all my core subjects, so I moved school. I know its might not be a realistic option for you, but I’m glad I left.
Your teacher sounds awful – but I would actually try and get on her good side. You really don’t want her working against you for the whole year, it could just make everything harder for you.
I hope it all works out anyway.
Wow, Kate! 馃檨 It’s good that you got out of it, but that’s incredibley unlucky. My heart goes out to you. 馃檪
I love most of my teachers, and there isn’t even a personality clash with my English teacher, she just has some sort of beef towards me! I think my Mam is going into the principal. I’ll probably end up going into the ordinary level class – which will be difficult, but I suppose it will prepare me for college! 馃榾