Basketry course

[flick]

It's not that I'm annoyed that four of my nails are green.

It's not even that I'm annoyed that there was no warning that we'd be dyeing things and that the provided gloves were shite.

I can live with green nails.

It's more that over half of the the people on the course are inefficient and inept. That slows me down, which is frankly annoying: I'm not paying for a social club. I'm paying to learn a skill, and they are preventing me from doing so.

I'm particularly looking at you, apparently-recently-post-huge-weight-loss-woman who spent the morning distracting the tutor by complaining about the fact that you hadn't been accepted onto the year-long basketry course on the grounds that you had already done all the short courses; you chose to interpret that as "and therefore have nothing left to learn", and complained (loudly) that you didn't remember most of it, but I suspect that it was more that you had been on all of them and were still clueless: I note that you finished day one in the bottom two or three in terms of 'progress', where extreme progress was the fact that three of us had managed to grasp the half hour between your rant and your complaint (about not having done any of the stuff that others had spent the day doing) in order to get the tutor to show us how to actually start out baskets. Sigh.

There was one woman that I thought might be conversation-worthy. She's a double-ex-pat, over from India and writing her PhD whilst her husband does a spell at Canary Wharf, which sounded interesting. Sadly, she's also inept and apparently unable to process basic instructions.

I know, terribly snobby, but really, can't people have a brain, some sense of colour and a little manual dexterity? I think I prefer the classes full of obsessive old men: at least they pay attention. Bah.

Comments

[darth-tigger.livejournal.com]

Sounds bloody annoying.

[attimes-bracing.livejournal.com]

I feel your pain. Trying to come up with an answer that doesn't involve a military strike force on grounds of annoyance.

[sigisgrim.livejournal.com]

Sounds like somebody needs a good verbal slap.

[desperance.livejournal.com]

(When I was studying Chinese in a class, I was driven to distraction by the people who didn't do their homework from one week to the next, and so couldn't keep up, and so held everybody else back...)

[major-clanger.livejournal.com]

I've heard similar comments about book groups where the meetings are treated as socials and anyone who wants to talk about the book gets looked at askance. Fortunately, the one I was in set a rule of time to talk about the book followed by time to talk about other stuff. (Where we did have a problem was with two members who were close friends and very voluble, and who would quite blithely talk over anyone and everyone else. Eventually I was moved to suggest the use of a Speaking Object...)

[ajr.livejournal.com]

Hah. A speaking object is a brilliant idea, I might steal that for the book group I'm in (where the problem is someone makes one point about the book, someone immediately responds to it, and everything goes off from there leaving the initial person thinking "But... I had more points to make!")

[coth.livejournal.com]

The students on my PTLLS course were pre-vetted by basic IT test and interview, but it didn't stop some of them struggling with some of the assignments. Most of them were (in varying stages of development) good teachers though. I don't know how you solve the problem.

[dougs.livejournal.com]

> I think I prefer the classes full of obsessive old men

You may find you like science fiction fandom -- you should try going to a convention sometime.

[kayxh.livejournal.com]

I believe that the world of transport enthusiasts may provide what you are looking for

[kayxh.livejournal.com]

Two people from ICT were explaining how to use a laptop to one of my colleagues yesterday. "That light shows the battery". "This is the lead to charge it". "Yes, you can use it when the lead is plugged in and it is charging".

It was at this point I left the room.

So, I feel your basketry pain. Hope your basket turns out well.

[risby.livejournal.com]

If I was still over there I'd offer to be your companion with a brain, some sense of colour and manual dexterity. I've wanted to learn basket weaving for ages.

Otherwise I completely sympathise with your frustration. I've seen that in too many courses and it frustrates me as well, eventually leading to disengagement. Any chance to you can use techniques to alert the tutor to the fact that you are quick witted and skillful and she/he could spend a little time with you to keep you interested a the speed you can cope with and then talk broadly to the entire class?