How My Instructor Affected My Life

Vito -

Thanks for your reply, and yes, I actually agree with a lot of what you've said. While I still don't believe that it's an instructor's job to "weed people out" (I don't like that term anyway), I agree that part of their job is to prepare students for the "real world" out there.

I have to agree with Vito. Clinical instructors have a role in protecting the public from incompetent nursing students.

I suppose, but only if that teacher has that mindset. Believe it or not, most teachers only want the best for their students. I think. I know I only wanted to teach, never to destroy anyone.


Look, people should go to school whenever they want, no matter what their personal lives are like. It is not up to me and I do not say they are wrong for doing whatever they are doing, whenever they are doing it.

Understand me now. All I meant, and perhaps did not say clearly, is that some students have so many things going on outside of school that it makes it hard for them to focus on school. They have marital or family issues, health, car, or money issues, etc. They should not come to school expecting to not work hard, expecting sympathy, expecting special breaks because of their personal circumstances. That's what I meant. Sorry for being unclear.

Students must come to learn. I think older students especially have a hard time starting over again. I know I would, especially if the teacher were younger than I.

Students should plan on doing the work, following the rules, understanding that the teacher is trying to teach, not bully them or give them a hard time. Yes, some Instructors are mean or unfair. I do not believe I ever was, certainly not intentionally. I did nothing but try to educate my students, with a pure heart. I never browbeat or put down a student. I also did not let them get by with cheating, tardiness, excessive absenteeism, coming unprepared, or thinking they should be treated differently due to CNA or paramedic history, being older, being a single parent, or anything else. Everyone was held to the same standard. Sudden problems, such as a death in the family, were, of course, treated properly. And while it is hard when a child is ill for example, the fact that a child might be ill from time to time is forseeable. Therefore, the students were told, from the start, to have a plan in place to handle this, as their being absent more than once per semester would result in make-up days. Enough absences (more than 1, as stated), for whatever reasons, including deaths in the family, sick kids, their own sickness, crimes against them, etc., would result in failure and their having to repeat the semester.

It was not my rule. It was harsh but it was reality and I did enforce it. I had to or I'd have been falsifying school records and I was not about to do that for anyone. I have a license to protect, a family to support. In this matter, all Instructors were alike and the school required this of us and backed us up whenever a student tried to fight this, which happened every semester, predictably. The school had to follow state and federal laws or risk going out of business. No student is worth that.

I hate to admit it but I am older than you are. And I think I know something of life, also.

I wish you well. I hope you understand.

Congradulations!

I am glad you made it past the instrutor. I had the same experiance with an CI while in the BSN at Grand Canon Univ. All the other students spoke up for me to the head instructor. I was told they always back CI or they would have a hard time finding CI's. At the end of the semester I endded up quitting. I am now doing my LPN. I glad you did not give up.

Let me just tell everyone something here. All I expect is to be treated fairly, just as anyone else in a particular class is treated. Up to this time, that has actually not been my experience. In many of my classes I have been singled out for "special" treatment. I am assuming it is because I'm am an older student. I work hard. I do all my work on time. I spend much of my spare time reading and studying. I also work full time and I'm married and have a family. I currently have a 3.59 GPA - I do not have a grade lower than a B. I have gotten what I've gotten honestly by honest study and hard work, although some have wrongly tried to imply otherwise.

It's not my fault if some younger instructors don't like the fact that I'm an older person and act like they are threatened or scared by it or intimidated by it. I say "grow up and get over it". I will repeat what I said earlier - I pay for an educational product at the public institution I attend. I expect a decent product to be delivered as long as I uphold my part of the contract, which so far I have been. I have never asked or expected anyone to cut me breaks because of my life situation, age, etc. but I've been the object of treatment that I honestly believe was deliberate to try and discourage me and get me to voluntarily quit. Treatment that no one else got. And that is just plain wrong. That's why some of these stories about people doctoring Scantrons and saying things like "Oh well we can't all be astronauts" sort of makes me see red and hits a raw nerve.