Saturday Gone Awry

I can think of better ways to spend my Saturday mornings. Like sleeping-in, something I've not done for years since having children. Or taking the kids out to the mall as soon as the doors to the entrance open at 10.30a.m (am allergic to crowds...and usually avoid them by going early and leaving just as the midday visitors start trailing in).

Anyway, just as I thought I'd finally have a Saturday off, after having to work every Saturday for the past 2 months...word has it that me and colleagues have all got to come in...urgh!!..for an in-house training.

So there I was, yesterday... physically there but mentally and spiritually at home..all curled up in bed. I sat in the room with pen and paper (handout) and soon found myself doodling away, as I often do when bored. The talk was on ... something like..ways to make teaching and learning effective. Pretty impressive topic...very useful for the likes of me...those invloved in education. But unfortunately though, the man in my personal opinion, failed to deliver in an effective way. We (yes the victims - colleagues and I) spent endless hours listening to him go over nearly every line in the handout and oh...did I mention he had us read out the passages loudly.... only to come up with this in the end "OK...what's her/his problem?" "Yes, pronunciation, modulation, pitch" bla bla bla. Hey! we already know some of us have problems with our pronunciation, modulation, intonation etc...as you've clearly pointed out earlier at the beginning of the session. So why is there the need to tell us over and over again?

It didn't help that some of his remarks toward us were quite condenscending at times. Something like we can be at a better place than this, bla bla bla. Look Mr Consultant-Anglophile-Know-It-All...I'm proud of what I do...and my being here and not in some institution or college or university, does not make me any less of a person or educator for that matter. If there are a few things that I'm proud of... it'd be my family and the work that I do. And my being here is a conscious decision and not some last choice I can't get any other job thing.

So, this Ms No-I-Will-Not-Let-People-Talk-Down-To-Me just had to stand up and defend her vocation which she feels passionately about. And she did. Annnddd Mr Consultant-Anglophile-Know-It-All went on a tirade about him being a busy man globe-trekking and all and having to come down to our(?) level.. hah?.. gosh I can't even remember what he said and all...only that at the end he said I should go to Oxford University like him. Hah??? Go to Oxford University and turn out like him?? No thank you!! Well Ms No-I-Will-Not-Let-People-Talk-Down-To-Me could have continued with the repartee and lashed out at Mr Consultant-Anglophile-Know-It-All, but she is reminded to hold her tongue and not stoop to the level of the pompous #$#%@!*. Since earlier that morning at 4 plus she had woken up early to perform her Tahajjud prayer... and had among other things asked God for the virtue of patience, something which she feels she clearly lacks. And in that room at that time, Ms No-I-Will-Not-Let-People-Talk-Down-To-Me told herself that God wanted to test her patience. Therefore He sent her Mr Consultant-Anglophile-Know-It-All.

Yes, that's my Saturday gone awry.