Scratch

Man, marking is awfully boring, to say the least.

I
It annoys me to bits when students fail to follow simple instructions. It is supposed to be one of the most basic of skills – the ability to understand and follow simple instructions – one should get from schooling. I’d love to call these people stupid, or illiterate, but that is unlikely, though unfortunately not totally implausible. A more likely explanation, I think, is that they pay little attention to the instructions because they think that they can get away with it. They know that they can get away with it. Many teachers and lecturers tolerate this based on compassion, myself included sometimes, but I can’t help thinking every time that we’re just rewarding and encouraging bad behavior.

And it shows, as I keep reminding myself, every time I come upon a car in the parking lots going in the wrong direction, and the driver stares at me as if I am in the wrong blocking his way. Nobody even understands arrows anymore!

II
I had a professor once who gave us ten minutes to complete a page full of questions. “A pop quiz” he said, so everybody got busy immediately. A line at the top of the sheet reads “Quickly read through all Questions 1 through 20 before attempting”. So, I did just that, and found at the bottom of the page it says “You only need to answer Question 1”.

LOL.