Why are you here?

Most of my students are adults. They come on the course on day release and study at home. Its challenging and takes 3 and a half years. At the moment some of my students are studying for a 7 hour exam….those with dyslexia get extra time. This could be considered cruel and unusual torture.

They are studying accountancy; which to be frank is not that interesting. Some of the things you can do with it are interesting but studying it…no.

Occasionally my students say things that make me wonder why they are here;

‘I used to be an astronomer in Hawai’

‘I grew up in the circus’

‘I’ve only got a year to live and I want to complete this before I die’*

I have dyscalculia

‘I have a 4 month old baby and I’m still on maternity leave’

Ah…The last one makes me very uncomfortable; I’m not sure I’m happy with a thought process that flags this up.  When I had a baby I still wanted to be a professional; yes it probably is more challenging if you have family commitments but I wouldn’t be so suprised if it was a guy with a 4 month old baby.

And why? Because I still after everything tend to asume that she’ll be caring for the baby.

*Unfortunately although he sat his exams prior to dying the qualification had to be awarded after he died.

Tears

Today I was teaching financial accounting; one student ran out in tears….3 times. I assumed (wrongly) that she must have personal problems….but no its the financial accounting thats the problem. Teaching a professional qualification I’m often surprised by the number of students I reduce to tears. She feels that she just isn’t getting it….she isn’t. I don’t know what to say…there is still time.

My partially sighted student had a support assistant today- that was interesting as I’ve taught somebody with a support assistant before. I think it might have worked better if the support assistant had been that at the begining of the course as he seemed to struggle to write down what was required….If he had been for it to help now he would have had to learn accountancy to some degree. which then lead me to an interesting question…should I be trying to teach the support assistant?

The support assistant and the student talked in another language; I couldn’t tell what they were saying and therefore found it hard to offer appropriate assistance. They may have been discussing the football!!

My eye..I lied

I am currently taking a week off work due to an eye injury. My son poked me in the eye with his finger nail. It hurt like hell…then hurt some more…This is the closest I’ve come to taking time off work for child related reasons…and I’ve lied about how the injury occurred. In my workplace parents with children are allowed 2 days special leave to cover breakdown of childcare arrangements etc. I have never taken this…  I feel it would undermine my position as a career focused women…the person who sits opposite me seems to have a child who often makes her late, absent or leave early…  Anyway I have yet again been completely impressed by the NHS- the injury occurred whilst away for the weekend (Blackpool, staying with friends not doing the tacky kiss me quick thing). I spent all day convincing myself that surely the problem would disappear but no such luck- so I ended up in A+E on bank holiday Sunday…where I was seen and treated within an hour. It was efficient polite and effective. Today I went to the eye clinic for a follow up; it was similarly quick, efficient, pleasant etc. The only thing I would change are the chairs- they are arranged in a kind of maze which makes it difficult to find a seat without volting over a row of chairs…tricky to negotiate with an eye injury..