An unhappy woman

1 Dec 2004

AN UNHAPPY WOMAN

Not me. Christina ( my classmate) was pissed last night. She was upset. Don’t know if I have mentioned this before but Christina is unhappy in the course. She wants to be a performer and she kind of ended up in this course because she thought theatre in education meant education in theatre. In fact, she was still thinking of switching to another college a couple of weeks ago. But the process is just too complicated and she would have missed a huge chunk of the course because one term is ending soon.

Lots of emotional baggage here.

1) She absolutely does not want to “teach”. So even working with children or teenagers through theatre is out of the question. She wants to develop her skills as a performer. The course is extremely irrelevant
2) She feels Martin (our tutor) is not only not helpful but that he is defensive when she gives negative feedback on the course
3) She feels Martin is biased because she thinks he dismisses her contributions in class
4) She feels Martin is biased also because he emailed her about being absent in class. She skipped classes twice in a row because she found it meaningless and boring. So, Martin told her to inform the department should she want to absent herself.
5) She feels she should be allowed to write an essay which she is truly interested in rather than choose one from a list given.

I feel some are valid, for example the last one. But I also feel that learning opportunities are sometimes created rather than given. I know of students in other courses who have negotiated to change topics. So, I suggested that she try to negotiate with Martin the current topics with different angles. But when I suggested that, she says that Martin will never agree because he does not like her. Hmm…

I was a little vexed at this point but I was not “pally” enough to give her a piece of my mind. If you are not happy, either you accept your lot and keep quiet (this is the defeatist attitude which I sometimes take) OR you just do whatever you can to reverse the situation to your advantage. The worst thing to do is to just sit there and complain.


WHAT IS EDUCATION ANYWAY?
She is certainly not alone in the education world. I can think of numerous students who are hating every moment of their course. And how did they end up there?

1) They didn’t find out enough about the course
2) Everybody else says that it’s good and that the demand would be great in future
3) They could not get into the course they wanted
4) Their parents forced them to take the course
5) Their friends chose the course and they want to be with them



I admit that sometimes it’s too late to do anything but while waiting for the painful period to be over, you could at least do something which might make you happier in the future.
This, Christina is doing. While doing her MA, she paid extra to attend a one-year performance course. So, at least she does try to make her life better.

THE DREADED ESSAY OUTLINE

We were supposed to hand in some outline to Martin. She emailed hers and Martin emailed it back, commenting that that was not an outline at all, asking her to re-do it. Of course she was unhappy.

So, last night, she went to Anastasia (my flatmate and her fellow Greek) to complain. She then asked me to go to Anastasia’s room and look at it together with Anastasia. Actually, I think she wanted us to agree that Martin is prejudiced.

Martin gave us three guiding questions. Her answer to all three questions was one paragraph of about 150 words. I have to admit that it was rather vague and general. Anastasia and I then tried to go question by question, asking her many sub-questions to get her to explain more. It was not easy because she was rather resistant.

The first question Martin gave us was something like this, “What are your areas of interest? Relate these to your experience as a practitioner…?”

So, Anastasia and I asked for the topics she was interested in the course, even something remotely linked to drama or theatre will do.

Christina: NOTHING.

(Hmmm…now is that a “good”start or what?)

Anastasia/me: What about your previous job? You were a social worker right? How could drama be used in social work?

Christina: I work with old people, nothing to do with what we’re doing now.

Anastasia/me: Erm…IF…just IF… you were given a chance to use drama, or performance which you are interested in, to help the old people, how do you things might change?

Christina: I am interested in socio-political issues, not the elderly

(ARGGGHHHH…)


Anastasia/me: Ok. What about in the future? You want to perform, right? What are some areas that you have explored in class relevant to your future as a practitioner?

Christina (pointing to the computer monitor): IT IS HERE. Using drama to explore meaning.

Anastasia/me: Good! But you need explain this in detail. What is so special about drama? What meaning? Meaning for who? And what is the use of exploring meaning?

(At this point, Anastasia broke into Greek. I did not understand a word but I nodded my head earnestly anyway)

Christina (almost in tears): Then it is not an outline. It is the essay. I can write the essay. I know what I want to write. What is the use of this outline???!!!

Oh dear…I did not know what to do. I can help someone who is lost. But she does not feel lost at all. She just feels that she is brought somewhere she does not want to go and she’s violently wanting to go her own way.

In the end, we talked about the cheapest ways to return to Greece. Both of them are returning home for Christmas.