Red Flannel Balloon
How quickly one can become deflated.
As you know, I work as a Writing Tutor as well as teaching a class. (My twin sister also works in the Writing Lab.) In the Writing Lab, we can't make every paper an "A" paper. Frankly, that's not our job. Our job is to answer specific questions asked by the students. If the students asks me to look at commas and fragments, I'm not going to do a dang thing about their content. That, I'm afraid, is up to them to fix.
Bathroom gossip is the worst, isn't it? Not only do I find it kindasorta disgusting when people talk through the stalls to each other, often what they say isn't nice at all. And they can't see who's listening.
Long story short, one woman told another that if she was to go into the Writing Lab, don't bother "if you get the short haired twin." (That's me, by the way.) A professor marked her down on a paper, and, of course, her grade is directly my fault.
I'm a sensitive person, so yes, I'll admit I did cry and doubt my every ability and right to teach as I sat in that bathroom stall. I know exactly which student it was that said this hateful thing about me, and I'll admit I planned my revenge.
But the harsh reality is this: I'm the one who graduated Summa Cum Laude from my alma mater and was hired out of college to teach these people a thing or two about composition and writing mechanics. She is in her umpteenth year of community college and only knows how to play a blame game; I've heard her do it before, complaining about every professor she's ever had as she sits in the Writing Lab.
Should I take this student and her "criticism" seriously? On one level, yes. I should constantly experiment with new ways to explain grammatical concepts, to tutor a student's way towards a clearer thesis. But am I, as a tutor and a human being, "not worth a bother?"
Absolutely not.
As you know, I work as a Writing Tutor as well as teaching a class. (My twin sister also works in the Writing Lab.) In the Writing Lab, we can't make every paper an "A" paper. Frankly, that's not our job. Our job is to answer specific questions asked by the students. If the students asks me to look at commas and fragments, I'm not going to do a dang thing about their content. That, I'm afraid, is up to them to fix.
Bathroom gossip is the worst, isn't it? Not only do I find it kindasorta disgusting when people talk through the stalls to each other, often what they say isn't nice at all. And they can't see who's listening.
Long story short, one woman told another that if she was to go into the Writing Lab, don't bother "if you get the short haired twin." (That's me, by the way.) A professor marked her down on a paper, and, of course, her grade is directly my fault.
I'm a sensitive person, so yes, I'll admit I did cry and doubt my every ability and right to teach as I sat in that bathroom stall. I know exactly which student it was that said this hateful thing about me, and I'll admit I planned my revenge.
But the harsh reality is this: I'm the one who graduated Summa Cum Laude from my alma mater and was hired out of college to teach these people a thing or two about composition and writing mechanics. She is in her umpteenth year of community college and only knows how to play a blame game; I've heard her do it before, complaining about every professor she's ever had as she sits in the Writing Lab.
Should I take this student and her "criticism" seriously? On one level, yes. I should constantly experiment with new ways to explain grammatical concepts, to tutor a student's way towards a clearer thesis. But am I, as a tutor and a human being, "not worth a bother?"
Absolutely not.
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