Unhappy

by AJ

Midterm exam week has killed much of my enthusiasm. I detest these fucking exams. How idiotic. How shoddy and ill-thought.

The driving mindset behind the exams seems to be something like: "Lets make it very difficult so that too many students dont do well". This is the "trick them and sort them out" school of thought. What a bunch of crap.

I prefer to test the most important points I want the students to know... and I want them ALL to get 100%. That shows that they learned what I considered to be most important... and therefore Ive done my job.

But the university system is locked in an authority mindset. The authority figures (teachers, staff) compile a secret test composed of tricky and difficult questions in order to weed out all but the best English speakers. What this accomplishes, other than creating a hierarchy of grades... and keeping students beat down.. I dont know.

Im happy that the whole sorry exercise is finished. Now Ive got another 7 weeks of teaching before the equally dreadful Finals process begins. At least I can do something useful and enjoyable during those 7 weeks.

.....