It's a big challenge for me today, write something about something that doesn't entail any more references to "drug abuse" than the one I just made.
Well, shit. That'll do it.
I had to take English in college when I went there once. I couldn't move up until I passed it. I was in there with the new generation of the time it was then.. Not X, Y I think. We had to write. First thing I handed in, I got a C.
I asked the instructor what the fuck, a C? Punctuation and grammar was lacking she said. I needed work.
She said the story was passable, but we needed to get me cleaned up. She had marked all over the paper in red pencil, comma, semi colon, period, does not follow what the fuck ever. This caused me to bristle up.
I began to complain, vociferously, about the injustice and arrogance, my standard complaint when I'm not getting what I want.
The kids were watching the old motherfucker rant. They were unaffected and disinterested, not a comrade among the weasley little wastrels.
The instructor came over and whispered to me to follow her outside. She did not crook her finger at me, to her credit.
When we got out there she said " You are acting as if you would like to withdraw from my class. Would you like to withdraw from my class? Because if you want to stay in my class you have to stop fucking around with me and do what I'm here to teach you to do."
I had to get through the class, I had a fucking scholarship, desperation borne of being a mostly honorable man and having to accept defeat at the hands of a smart woman enveloped me. "Alright. I don't want to change much though, I'll write like I want, hand in everything on time, you pass me. Alright?"
"No, that is not alright. You have to earn the credit. Keep quiet, too.You'll mess the kids up worse than they already are. You partner up with the middle aged single mom in there. She can punctuate already and she and you will do well together. I heard about you. Go sit with Helen, keep quiet unless you can be constructive."
Some times you have to go along to get along, which is anti anarchic, but what the fuck; I'm living in this Christly ass country anyway.. I did it. I got a B and met a bunch of utterly lost disaffected kids who could barely even read and will soon have complete control of us. I learned some other shit, too.
I did not, however, continue to stroll in the halls of higher learning. The scholarship was a ploy and an attempt to control me. I'm anti control so I gave it back and paid twenty seven dollars for the English class out of my own money. Fuck college, I'm too ruined for that shit now and I was then, too..
that's a pretty cool teacher as far as I'm concerned.
ReplyDeleteYeah, she was alright. It's pretty tough for the JC teachers, getting through all the shit they get. They work hard and don't give up. She did well by all of us.
ReplyDeleteThere's something I want to say here, but I'll have to think to trawl it out. I will return to it, if you can stand it.
ReplyDeleteIn the meantime, I had a run in a few years back with my son's elementary school teacher who corrected my son's homework with wholly unnecessary little red commas. It did not sit well with me. She did not seem to grasp that - in purely grammatical terms - her decision to insert that comma was purely optional, and to my eyes a shitty call.
Of course, she liked it even less that an unemployed father had the temerity to challenge her in her role.
"The kid's alright. What chance do they have with such that kind of parentin ?" the staff room conversation might have run. "Always thinking they know best."
Damn straight. If not straight 'A'.
"What chance do they have with such that kind of parentin ?" Indeed. My fucked up editing skills fail me once again.
ReplyDeleteI had to pause there to change a nappy. A mitigating factor in my case for the defence.
We were older, supposedly educated to some degree or another, and we were, but the instructor had to deal with 5 year olds posing as 19 year olds, no one gave a shit because everyone was scared, abused women, difficult old opinionated grumpy motherfuckers, people who had finished high school that could barely read or spell "dipshit". She orchestrated all that into 13 or 15 people who could write a college grade paper, if they wanted to, in 3 months. 7 people dropped out, 7 or so, in the first two weeks.She was not interested in politics, everyone had to do their work or get lost. I never fucked with her again, in fact I developed a pretty severe case of respect for her. It's an art, making order out of chaos, it's just not for me. I'm not a college motherfucker.
ReplyDeleteWell, I'm still thinking. It can take me a while, you know.
ReplyDeleteOn reflection, it sounds like your instructor - a better name than teacher, I agree - may have made the best of a difficult job. Still. Having read your writing, I will say this. You did not need much in the way of instruction. I know that much.
Merry Christmas, Tim. You and Jess.