Still a hard-ass.
I spent some time peer reviewing my Coursera coursemates today.
That hour or so made me realize how much I hadn't mellowed down in work mode, not even after two years of lazing around. As I graded my fellow peers, some submissions triggered angry rants like "what on earth were you thinking?" and "how can someone submit something like this and still get so far in the course?". Of course my rants weren't just one-liners (they never are) - JW had to hear the whole tirade and my utter bewilderment at how grownups can't even follow simple instructions. An hour later while walking Jasmine, we were still discussing whether I was being a hard-ass or if my reviews were perfectly justified.
Mind you, this doesn't happen every time. I peer review some in my cohort every week when the course is running, but this time 3 out of 6 submissions had problems with them, and when you mark people down you have to provide an explanation and "constructive criticism". The hardest part is having to use euphemisms when you really want to say something like, "This is a really lazy submission. How did you even get this far without a basic understanding of what the assignment requires?"
As a teacher, I'm used to grading students. I don't get riled up when they can't grasp a concept because I don't really expect them to retain everything I teach, not when they have to juggle 4 other subjects in 5 hours of school. But when grownups who are taking an enrichment course can't even follow simple instructions or are just plain lazy, it is beyond me. It reminded me of college days when I had to keep tabs on group members just so that our assignments would get a decent grade. I don't think many people liked me back then - if anything, most were terrified of me because I had standards. Here, in a non-working environment, people usually only see the side of me that's kind and happy and nice. There's nothing to get upset about when I'm not in goal-oriented work-mode. But that doesn't mean that the "tigress with standards" part of me has changed. It's still there, and still very much a part of me. It also made me realize that people never really "grow up" - that grownups with a poor work ethic probably used to be kids with a poor work ethic. Kids are forgivable, but I expect so much more from adults who get paid to work.
I know, I live in an ideal world in my head. I should really grow up and take off the rose-tinted glasses.
LOL. I highly doubt all you can call your lifestyle "lazing around" when you're always packing your days with a purpose and goal, either with bible study, prayer reminders, coursera courses, reading etc. so I doubt your "tigress" work ethic has dissipated. I think you consider it "lazing around" precisely because you have high standards.
ReplyDeleteInterestingly enough, I tend to be more lenient toward adults/grownups taking enrichment courses precisely because they get paid to work and not to take these courses, so they might not take them as seriously. Whereas kids don't really have many responsibilities aside from schoolwork, so I'm less forgiving. Got to instill good work ethic at a young age after all if you don't want lazy grownups!
But those adults CHOSE to take the course (and probably had to pay for it), whereas kids don't get a choice about what to study (at least in Msia haha). It's like I expect adults to actually treat studying with a more mature/working world mentality (don't perform? You get fired) than kids who are controlled by their id, yannoe. =P I guess I see your point though. They probably don't have as much time as I do haha.
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