Well, today was the last day of work, and it has been interesting to say the least. The exam results were given out on Monday. The smallish number of students who passed ALL of their exams and were assigned a department were happy, overwhelmed, emotional - some nearly to the point of tears. One student said to all of his teachers (individually of course), You're the best teacher I ever had!
Unfortunately, the response of those who didn't pass all the exams - those required to rewrite one or more of their exams in September - was equally emotional. Yesterday and much of today were taken up with appeals... TONS of them. Some students went to all the teachers (even ones who didn't teach them) several times each trying to get their grades changed. Only a paltry few admitted that failure to reach the required level on such-and-such an exam might possibly be linked to something they had done or failed to do. The majority did everything from suggest that the marks were unfair on the grounds that other less clever students got better marks, accuse the teacher of acting on a personal dislike of a particular student, beg to have their exam marks altered... and one or two even went as far as to threaten to go to Baghdad and walk along RPG alleys (with the consequences falling on our heads). A few students (with political/social status?) tried unsuccessfully to go over our heads and get the dean to order us to pass them without rewrites.
As I can't say that I have ever had this experience before, it causes me to wonder how grades are assigned in other institutions here.
About Me
- Zanmei
- A friend in Taiwan characterized me as someone seeking stability in risky environments. If she knew I had relocated to Northern Iraq, she would probably feel she had been proven right... But the truth is, life is quiet here... so far. But it's true that I love the challenge of figuring out yet another new place. I wonder if my curiosity will ever be completely satisfied. Charlie Chan said, "Curiosity responsible for cat needing nine lives." I only have one, so I better satisfy as much as possible before it runs out... or hope that I come back as a cat.
1 comment:
That's so funny!
It also rang a few bells for me. Kind of like the pleas I get to pass English copy of dubious quality to save someone's face, or someone's skin, more likely.
Don't want to name names, but one of my more spectacular failures to convince resulted in a "With your life" tagline for a shipping company. One to keep the punters puzzing, I guess.
So what does one do with one's summer hols in Iraq?
W in Tokyo
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