I am pretty pissed off at my fellow class mates today. It isn’t just one thing, but a number of things that have really got me going. It had been building for a while, and I think I need to vent a little.
It all stems around the fact that I am highly disappointed in the discipline our class is showing as a group. I blame the administration of the school somewhat, and I will touch on that in a bit, but my fellow classmates are starting to let me down.
Not showing up for gym in the mornings…giving a half ass effort at gym… not showing up for class because of whatever reason… lying about assignments being handed in…blaming the teachers for the program for all their problems… complaining… complaining… and more complaining.
Diving a bit more into these; on Friday we have 1/3 of our class missing from gym class. Yep, only 20 of 30 people showed up. One individual also missed gym on Thursday and Monday. That just isn’t good enough to me. On Thursday our fitness instructor didn’t show because he slept in…it happens, but many students, rather than stay and do the 20k bike like we knew we were supposed to, just went home…I just expected more form people. Or there is our test today, several people didn’t study, but when they do poorly they blame the school. Or they did fine and brag about not studying and passing…well way to sneak by champ! One person in out class regularly misses Friday’s and Monday’s and I really don’t see any fallout of this…what message does that send to the rest of us.
I may sound like a bit of a hypocrite about the complaining piece, seeing as this blog is one hug complaint, but people seem to focus so much on the negative it is getting to me. Be happy about the fact that you are here; you could be doing something much, much worse.
As for the administration, I am disappointed at the discipline tactics they use…when I came into this program I was told it was going to be para-military, and I expected to have a bit of a rough go…HA! No freaking way. Did you know that our instructors are not allowed to make us do more than 10 pushups at a time…this is a OH&S guideline. This obviously doesn’t include gym class, but what a joke. I thought I would be doing pushups every time I was late, every time I misspoke or screwed something up. One person in our class missed last Friday because they were to hung-over to come, on Monday the instructor told her that he wasn’t mad, he was more feeling bad for her because he knew how bad she must have felt… FUCK OFF! ARE YOU KIDDING ME!...again, what message does that send to the rest of us.
I thought when I came here I was going to be pushed to improve myself…they told us we would become a different person, and I honesty don’t think I am any more disciplined than I was before I came. It pains me to say that, but I just expected to much more.
It’s not like I find this course super easy, it is challenging academically, physically, and emotionally… at times…but I came here to be pushed…and for the most part I have not been.
Anyway, I think I need to talk to someone at the school about this. I don’t know if it is better in person or in writing but I need to let them know what I think. And I am not alone. There are a few people in the program who are very focused, very dedicated, very disciplined….they make me look like a loser gang banger, and I can’t begin to tell you how much I respect them, how much they inspire me. I just wish there were more people like that. It’s not the course material or content that I have a problem with, it is the overall, general attitude that seems to be prevalent in the group and in the school. It’s like after years of teaching, they have lost some of there heart. I don’t want them to break us like we are in boot camp, but I would like to see consequence for behavior seems to be very clearly unacceptable.
And to my classmates… are you not hear because you want to be…are you not trying to be ready for one of the greatest and most respected professions in the world…do you not respect the sort of effort that takes…do you not respect all the firefighters that have done this before you…are you not worried about how you look and how ready you will be when school is over.
Tell me, please, am I being to hard on people? Am I just expecting to much. It is because I think what I am trying to do here is more special than it actually is. Am I going to be equally disappointed when I get a job after this and see that all firefighters are not what I thought they would be.
Can I take that kind of disappointment and still be in the profession.
Writing this has not made me feel better.
5 comments:
Your more than half way through keep pushing. I know this will work out for you when it comes time to get a job, it's a small world and this will come back to kick them in the ass.
I don't think you are being too hard on these people. This school should be hard, it should be weeding people out. If your life is on the line do you think you can trust a classmate that missed class because they were lazy or hungover? That would be pretty hard. I can see the younger kids just out of high school being lazy, but this school is supposed whip them into shape.
Easy there old man brody. I am probably the last person that should be bitching about skipping class due to hangovers, etc. I did plenty of that when I was 19-23ish. But, there's clearly a difference between me missing an hour of history class and this. I can read about the battle of Stalingrad on my own, and missing the odd class didn't affect my job. I don't think your too hard on them. Besides, if you weren't ranting or commenting on sports you would risk being boring.
I have taken the liberty of forwarding your blog site to the school administration, along with a couple incriminating photos. No, not really.
Maybe it should be a prerequisite to be 25 before entering the college.
Your getting older, you care more about what you do with yourself. The kids don't care as much I know myself, murdoch and michelle all treated school as second nature at times. The line was that we learned when things counted and pulled our shit together to get it done and if we didn't we didn't make excuses. I failed things cause of lack of effort but the next assignment I'd make up some marks. Its really just a maturity thing. You have to relax and let them be they'll come around the main thing is to keep yourself motivated and keep driving for your goals, Fuck the rest!
On a lighter note I'll share some stories. They are a bit long so I'll post it on my blog.
I hear what you guys are saying about the maturity thing. And that probably has a lot to do with it. When I was in University I was certainly no different...many skipped classes, many tests without studying, and many assignments done last minute or copied off someone else. For some reason I just expected a little different from the group here. I mean they interviewed close to 100 people here in December, and these 30 were supposed to be the best. Plus we all paid close to $19,000 for tuition. Just thought people would take it more serious.
But your right...being 18, 19, or 20 is a long way off from being 26. I sort of like the idea of being 25 as a minimum, but then the industry would probably loose good people to other industries that couldn't wait the 7 years after high school before starting a career.
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