A couple of days ago, I was told that I was to hard on the last group of students who failed their safety exams. In that group of 6, only 1 passed. I did not teach this group. I only helped proctor the exam.
So that day, after I was told that I was to hard on the students who failed. I reflected on it for some time.
Yes, I was hard on the five who failed. They failed an open book exam. All the answers are in their handouts. How in the world do you do fail that? I thought it could have been a comprehension issue. Well for one student who got 25% wrong. Yes, maybe he may have comprehension issues. I'll lean towards the maybe, on that student. For the other four, they have no excuse. They answered more than 25% correctly.
For one student who was looking over my shoulder as I corrected his paper. He jokingly said to his buddy, "Hahahaha, I failed". I glanced at him for a second and just shook my head. I do not think failing is a laughing matter. It may cost you your job. The other three guys were all smiles, like there was nothing wrong. One even commented, "It's okay...we'll take the retest". He even asked if they can take the retest right then and there.
I don't know about you. But I get upset when I get a wrong answer on any of my exams. Yet, the only person upset among the six, was the only student that passed. He was upset for getting 4 questions wrong.
There is something wrong, when the students taking the course, feel it is okay to fail the test, because they know, they will take a retest. I don't understand that concept.
I get upset whenever our locals on island...When I say locals, I'm talking about Chamoru, Filipino, Chuukese, Yapese, Palauan, and others who live here and make Guahan their home...I get upset when they don't push themselves to be better than their past. I've heard all the excuses.
"I'm a mason. Why do I need to learn safety?"
"I'm a laborer. I don't need this."
"I don't use computers, so I know I'll fail".
"I didn't want to be here."
"I don't have any construction experience. So I don't know."
"What's the point of learning this? We're not going to do it."
"I'm old school."
There are much more that I have yet to write down. but you probably get the gist of what I'm getting at.
I know these folks can do a lot better. I know they can. Some people reading this will probably think that I'm crazy. But I am sick and tired of seeing many locals get passed over by foreigners. I'm sick and tired of seeing locals doing hard menial labor while the foreigners are in management.
Yes, it is their responsibility to better themselves. But as long as I am a Safety Instructor. I will kick your arse so many times to move you in the right direction. You're going to have to reach deep inside you to find that spark to motivate yourself to do better, than what you're doing now.
I'm also sorry that you think that I was hard on you. IF you thought that was hard, You're a panty. That's not hard. My MATUA SCOUTS will tell you what hard is from me. Coming from a construction worker, that I was being hard. If you can take the time to think of how hard I was towards you, and complain to your supervisors or to the training coordinator on how hard I was towards you. YOU should have taken the same amount of time if not more to pay attention during the safety course. So you can PASS an OPEN BOOK EXAM!!!
I can only guide a horse to water. I cannot force it to drink.
Due to the retest issue, I've instructed my GCC safety students. They can only retest with the next cycle or whenever the department head schedules the retest but not less than 1 week from the previous test.
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