Monday, November 29, 2010
So the other day, on my way to school, I was mildly engrossed in some thoughts and walked slower than usual. As such I ended up in class 3 mins past the hour.
First off, my course coordinator asked me why I was late. I was surprised by the way she asked it so my answer was "Sometimes 0900, sometimes 0910. I haven't decided yet."
"No, it's 0900." she said.
Now some background information on the timing. Our classes are supposed to start on the hour. However for the Diploma studentsm their classes start 10 mins past the hour so they essentially have a 10 mins break after every lesson.
What does this mean? All other lecturers, apart from our course coordinators, start the lesson at 10 mins past the hour. So a lesson scheduled for 0900, will start at 0910 instead.
I am not saying that I was right to be late for 3 mins, especially since it was mentioned that even being late for 1 min is considered being late. That's fair. However, so can we now conclude that all those other lecturers have been at least 10 mins late? Some come at 15 mins past the hour, so 15 mins late? What about the lessons that get suddenly cancelled? Student's time not worth anything I guess.
Student handphone must be switched off, lecturer phone very important no need to switch off. his is another person though, not mu coordinator. My coordinator is usually very nice and friendly.
Anyway, what to do? I was late mah.
The next lesson with that coordinator, I was definitely on time. In fact, I was early since I was already in school. What time did she arrive? 6 mins past the hour.
'nuff said.
Friday, November 05, 2010
My Thoughts on the Learner Bike Accident
Now, I realise that I am probably presenting a defensive stance towards the issue but if people can bash, I can say my piece.
On the part of the school. I am not saying that the school was absolutely blameless but is the amount of bashing equitable to what they should have been expected to do? Whilst this incident showed that the existing safety measures could be challenged, would many people have questioned the adequacy of the safety measures implemented before this incident happened? I would not know the answer, because these are just questions in my mind.
Would a reasonable man, asked to inspect the building and safety measures, have declared them as adequate or inadequate?
Still, I understand all the comments on the safety measures and indeed they are not that nasty. What I find truly nasty and irresponsible are the comments on the learner's gender. Do they mean to tell me that by being a female, she deserved to crash and burn? Ok, she didn't burn but I certainly do not believe that it was a matter of fact that she should have deserved it just because she is a female. This is coming from someone who is a supporter of the school of thought "Females are a special breed of drivers" so I guess that says a lot.
Would a male trainee have fared better under the circumstances? Maybe, probably. Then again we would never know for sure since we cannot ethically conduct trials to measure the significance of gender influences in such conditions.
Would the accident have been less serious if it was not in a multi level building? Maybe the bike could have crashed through the fence and the learner would have ended up on a busy road. Now that would have been seriously nasty. Yet again we can't know for sure.
If we cannot know so many things for sure, we should probably stop badmouthing and bashing. We should instead give the unfortunate person our blessings for a swift and complete recovery.
