So what started as a fairly decent day with beautiful weather took a weird twist in the early afternoon and turned into a big ol' pile of shit!
I don't even know how to accurately describe it, but I can tell you this...starting a program as important as this without a management team already in place 2 years ago was a bad idea. I knew that already though, I knew that when I signed on. I just didn't know how bad this place could be on some things and some days. What all started as a minor complaint about a hard quiz worth 25 points, turned bad within seconds when a student complaining to a teacher raised his voice and the teacher temporarily lost his cool. I thought it was over, so laughed and went on, mainly because crying in frustration in front of students and other staff would have been bad. Walking back to my office, another student told me that "you know he's right, it is not fair and it is not our fault", I said I know, but its not mine either, I'm the guy trying to fix it, but you guys can't be acting up and acting a fool every time something goes wrong here...for crissakes you won't have time to recover in-between episodes! He stared to get a little insistent and I just said don't raise your voice to me, don't even start that shit! and then I defused the situation by heading down the hall. Sitting in my office, I heard the voices start to get a little louder, then pretty darn impassioned, heard a third voice of reason jump in and try to calm the other two, and then I heard voice three get drowned out. I decided I had better head down the hall and figure out just what the hell was going on...And that was the moment that the whole day went from pretty darn good to not that great to "Oh shit, FML"
Probably just lost my best instructor, the guy who does the work of three men. His friend will probably go when he does. Damn near lost my number one student too, still might, the day is young. If he goes so will his friends, at least a few of them anyway.
Sent an emergency email to the boss,... that didn't work, tried calling,... that didn't work, calmed everybody down the best I could and did OK at that, finally said to hell with it and packed it in for night...If were not careful (and I mean walking in a minefield careful) this is going to unravel right in front of our eyes. We'll all be going home...quick, fast and in a hurry. the KSA will not have a better supply of medics, these students will have to start over at another school, we'll have jack shit to show for it, and I'll feel like a failure. Worse than feeling like anything though, I'll know that we let these young men down.
Wanna know what it was all about? What the whole disaster that damn near might have cost us the equivalent of 4 staff members and 3-5 of the best English speaking students the entire college has?...
Books...the students want books to study from...
I don't even know how to accurately describe it, but I can tell you this...starting a program as important as this without a management team already in place 2 years ago was a bad idea. I knew that already though, I knew that when I signed on. I just didn't know how bad this place could be on some things and some days. What all started as a minor complaint about a hard quiz worth 25 points, turned bad within seconds when a student complaining to a teacher raised his voice and the teacher temporarily lost his cool. I thought it was over, so laughed and went on, mainly because crying in frustration in front of students and other staff would have been bad. Walking back to my office, another student told me that "you know he's right, it is not fair and it is not our fault", I said I know, but its not mine either, I'm the guy trying to fix it, but you guys can't be acting up and acting a fool every time something goes wrong here...for crissakes you won't have time to recover in-between episodes! He stared to get a little insistent and I just said don't raise your voice to me, don't even start that shit! and then I defused the situation by heading down the hall. Sitting in my office, I heard the voices start to get a little louder, then pretty darn impassioned, heard a third voice of reason jump in and try to calm the other two, and then I heard voice three get drowned out. I decided I had better head down the hall and figure out just what the hell was going on...And that was the moment that the whole day went from pretty darn good to not that great to "Oh shit, FML"
Probably just lost my best instructor, the guy who does the work of three men. His friend will probably go when he does. Damn near lost my number one student too, still might, the day is young. If he goes so will his friends, at least a few of them anyway.
Sent an emergency email to the boss,... that didn't work, tried calling,... that didn't work, calmed everybody down the best I could and did OK at that, finally said to hell with it and packed it in for night...If were not careful (and I mean walking in a minefield careful) this is going to unravel right in front of our eyes. We'll all be going home...quick, fast and in a hurry. the KSA will not have a better supply of medics, these students will have to start over at another school, we'll have jack shit to show for it, and I'll feel like a failure. Worse than feeling like anything though, I'll know that we let these young men down.
Wanna know what it was all about? What the whole disaster that damn near might have cost us the equivalent of 4 staff members and 3-5 of the best English speaking students the entire college has?...
Books...the students want books to study from...
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