Isn't it great how teachers can assign work to a student, for example, write a play review for Journalism class, but not ever actually go over
how to write a review of any sort in class? And just wait, that's not the best part. The better part is that not only is that student forced into writing something they probably don't want to, much less know how to, but they get marked down for turning in work that looks bad, probably because the student had little or no interest in it, and they didn't know how to write the thing they are supposed to write.
Ok, so maybe this is slightly personal, but my Journalism grade is rapidly descending to absolutely dismal crap, and there's not too much now, that I can do about it.
This all began a few weeks ago when we were picking articles to write for the next edition of the school paper. It happened over the course of two days, and the teacher was clever enough to not fully reveal his requirements until the second day, to absolutely screw students who wanted to get an idea of their options before committing to any particular articles. So anyway, on day one, all we know is that we have to pick some articles, no specific minimum, and the categories we're going over the first day are News, Features, and Opinions/Editorials. In my personal view, those are the preferred ones, because if nothing else, they hold some of my incredibly lacking interest. We go through those, and I choose, wait, no I didn't. I didn't choose to write a column, the class thought it would be funny if I did, and somehow I was assigned it, in spite of the fact that I had no topic, or clue on how to write a column well. I also had some sort of stupid "caffeine sidebar" to a caffeine article that looks like it's getting cut anyway, and in spite of the fact that I was the one who suggested the actual article itself, I was denied the privilege of writing it.
Moving on to the second day, we then had to distribute A&E and Sports articles, however this time, there was a catch. Everybody had to have a minimum of 3 or 4 articles (I don't remember, I think it was 3, but the "caffeine sidebar" that I got stuck with didn't count). So, now I have two articles, I suddenly find that I need two more, but my options are now limited to Sports and A&E. So, as a result, every time he asks if I'm interested in something, I can only reply with statements of disagreement, because I don't have almost any interest in the sports or arts at my school. In any case, there are a bunch presented, and I have to make my decision, so from the extremely limited pool of options, I get what should have been a "News" article, but was classified as sports about a track being built in town, and I get a play review of a play that our school was doing for a Drama competition.
Later that week, the teacher gave out due date sheets, and most of them were reasonable due dates, with the exception of the play review, because he requested a due date that was before the actual presentation of the play. Yeah, review something that hasn’t been shown yet, that’s good. I of course raise this issue, and he says that I should do it whenever the play is shown. Great for me, huh?
Of course, that’s not the worst of it… all the while, my earlier deadlines, for the track article, and my “column” have resulted in terrible articles, due in part out of ignorance, and in part out of lack of work ethic, among other things. In the case of the column, I had nothing to write about. At the first due date, there was absolutely nothing that I had any significant opinion on to present to the school. So, because of my abject lack of subject matter, I turned in an article that got me a grade just barely above failing. Lucky (except that it was too late to help) for me, the science fair occurred between the due date for grading, and the due date for publication, and I have since been able to conjure up a decent opinion on that.
As for the track article, that turned out dismally because it didn’t really occur to write it as a news article, because it was in the “Sports” category. That and I personally didn’t force myself into putting any substantial amount of effort because I had no interest in it whatsoever. This was the kind of article that should have been assigned to the person who actually cared.
Ok, so to summarize up to now, my journalism grade is bad, and it’s bad because my journalism teacher seems to have some sort of misguided impression of my interests and abilities, and has furthermore consistently given me assignments which I personally don’t think I can fulfill in any reasonable amount of time or effort.
I think I’ve said most of this before in the blog, although I don’t’ know if it was read, and what I’m sure that most of the almost nonexistent population who actually do read this are thinking is why don’t I raise these issues with my teacher. Well, the reason now, is because it’s too late, the due date being tomorrow, and today being a Sunday. The reason before is because I’m a moron, and a moron who likes to view himself as the victim of the worlds horrible ways, no less, but there’s really nothing left to be done. I’ve got to get back to writing my play review now, which I actually had to pay money to write, so not only is this review costing me my grade, it also cost me 6 hard earned bucks. Actually, it wasn’t my money, but I’m sure my parents wouldn’t approve of the concept of me spending their money to get a bad grade.
And best of all, the people who know me in school, don't ever take anything I do or say seriously, because it's just another one of "Crazy Yoda's bitter ramblings." I'm not fucking Yoda, I'm not a fucking Sherpa, I'm not fucking Tacohead. Maybe the reason I'm always so angry and bitter is because I can hardly stand the sight of my peers and manage to fight the urge to vomit that comes as a reaction. Ok, so that's an exaggeration,
but the point will hopefully not be lost. I may not seem like I hate the sight of you when I talk to you, but for a lot of you, you can rest assured that I do. I guess that's one of those lessons you learn in school, but not in classes. How do deal with interacting with people you don't want to.
*** Note added a few minutes after the original publication of this entry: Most of that last paragraph is a bit of a... hyperbole, and shouldn't be regarded too seriously, and another note, much of my lack of social graces probably stems from the fact that I don't ever get enough sleep during the week.***
