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Long week, frustration high, motivation low

2003-10-04 - 6:22 a.m.

Disclaimer

Remember me bitching about the newbie teacher a few entries back? Well, he and I are a student-teacher couple no more, and it only cost me 50% of my tuition to get rid of him. What a bargain!

I haven�t liked his teaching style from the beginning. He spent days bogging us down with a bunch of advanced theory crap that we simply didn�t need this early in the class... but mostly I was able to keep up, and I figured whatever I didn�t get would be reviewed later at time-of-use or else wouldn�t really be needed at all. Not a huge problem, just annoying.

But last Thursday... criminy. After a 5-minute demonstration on how to use Photoshop to design a webpage, he turned us loose to create. Here�s the thing... nowhere in the course catalog or in the instructor�s introductory babbling did it say that basic Photoshop skills were recommended for this class. (I finally discovered this information yesterday in a sidebar while thumbing through the college�s quarterly.... something a person wouldn�t necessarily look at when registering, seeing as how everything can be done online.) Personally, I have only a nodding acquaintance with Photoshop and Illustrator and never would have taken this class had I known that basic skills were needed.

I muddled through much of the assignment, but I was confused about a lot of stuff... technical stuff, and also something I didn�t understand about his assignment, and when I asked him a question he tried to blow me off. Told me I needed to struggle with it, that figuring out what the design needed was all part of learning to design. But the problem wasn�t at heart a design problem, and when I tried to explain this he got pissy and told me I needed to �struggle it out� and I got pissy back and said that if I don�t have a clue how to proceed how am I supposed to just magically figure it out? And then he got pissier and said that �it can�t be taught� (meaning good design) and that I should just look at the Nike webpage and figure out what made it a good design.

First of all, if design can�t be taught... why the fuck are you charging me 200 bucks for this web design class? Second of all, that�s pure bullshit anyway. Design CAN be taught... it�s based on certain principles which most certainly can be imparted from teacher to student. (Great design may be a matter of intangiblility... genius or osmosis or something... but not basic, adequate design skills�which are what this BEGINNING class is supposed to be all about.)

Third of all, I wasn�t asking how I should lay my design out or what graphics I should use or what colors look best... I was asking a question that actually pertained only to how he wanted something done for that particular assignment. I wasn�t asking him to show me how to make my page look good, I was asking him to show me why what I was trying to do wasn�t working.

At that point our exchange deteriorated from pissy to shitty. Finally he very irritably tried to show me what I wanted to know, but either he didn�t understand what I was asking or I�m too dumb to figure out how what he was showing me pertained to what I wanted to know, and at that point I lost my temper and said that I thought the class was too advanced for a beginner and that I was going to withdraw. I never should have said that. The part about the class being too advanced for a beginner, I mean. I feel like I let him off the hook... I really should have told him he sucks as a teacher. He waved me off by saying coldly, �ya gotta do what ya gotta do.� Fucker.

So then when I went down to registration to withdraw I found out that I had exactly one day to transfer my tuition to another class if I didn�t want to lose 50%. So I ran all over campus, trying to find a class that:

1. I actually needed

2. fit in with my schedule

3. and that I could get permission from the instructor to enter two weeks late.

I finally found a class that fit the requirements, but as it turned out the instructor was unable to get me a permit in time to transfer my tuition. So I lost 50%. Which kind of sucks, but in the grand scheme of the overall cost of my education, $90 is really just piddling. I�ve spent that much on one book (and had the bookstore refuse to buy it back. Speaking of fuckers...)

Anyway. Starting next Tuesday I will be taking the Illustrator class. I know I said I was going to learn it on my own, but it really was the only class I could take that would actually count towards my degree. I could have maybe taken another art class or something, but I want to make as much progress towards my degree as possible, because this whole not-working thing is beginning to suck mightily. The kid has suddenly become a money-sucking black hole of needs... glasses, dental work, therapy, crappy little medical shit, clothes, school pictures... and that�s only just the stuff she NEEDS. There�s a whole heap of shit she wants that I wish we could do for her, but we simply can�t right now or for the foreseeable future. The Prince and I both need dental work, he needs new glasses, I�ve got a cat that needs spaying before she drives me right up the wall, not to mention declawing, which I wish I�d have had done months ago BEFORE she literally dug a hole through my carpet in search of the tuna she was certain I must have buried under the rug. (Never leave a tuna-salad-stained shirt lying on the rug for a few hours before washing, if you live with cats. Little housekeeping tip from your Auntie Ame.)

So... I�ve got a shitload of stuff to do this weekend, and I�m kind of wishing that I had not agreed weeks ago to go with a friend today to help her pick out a bridesmaid dress for her sister�s wedding. I did tell her yesterday that I only had a few hours to spare so hopefully she�ll try and keep it quick.

I�ve got a bunch of drawing to do, quite a bit of reading and a shitload of housework I�ve been neglecting... so naturally I�m sitting here writing pages and pages of drivel... because I lack all kinds of common sense. Also, I need to figure out our actual budget for the next two weeks so I can be in a bad mood for the rest of the day.

Woe is NOT all of me today, however. Mood-lifters include the Frida soundtrack and the latest issue of Juxtapoz. These are making me a happy girlie in spite of myself.

Now, off to do something productive.








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Previous - Next

Last Five
Crappy job crap, weird neighbor, and someone whose baby I apparently want to have - 2006-05-08
Live from the dump - 2006-04-09
Kind of like a muzzle for your brain - 2006-03-29
...and then she fell ass-first into my cereal bowl - 2006-03-28
Playing catch-up - 2006-03-27





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