10.11.2008

Of All the Rotten Luck

It's days like today that I rue the decision I made for continuing my college education. It's not the fact that I am still in school, it's the school I chose. It's hard to say for sure, since I haven't seen the caliber of students at other schools, but I feel like I've been stuck with a group of folks that barely squeaked their way out of high school. Perhaps it's the appalling job the high school systems nearby have done in preparing these people for the next level, and then the college-level work was adjusted for these results. Perhaps it's the inability of the college to set a standard and allow the cutoff level for average students to move on when the concepts of required courses have not been instilled in individuals.

I seem to come to these realizations every time I forced to work with others. On very few instances have I been fortunate enough to work with people that actually knew what was expected of them. The remainder of the time I'm left with people who have no desired skills to add to the group dynamic. For instance, I am "working" on a presentation with three individuals with the worst speaking skills I've ever had to endure. One has horrible stage freight and freezes mid-sentence every ten to fifteen seconds. I was unaware of this fact until today when she had to lead a brief discussion, although I noticed something was amiss due to the fact that she never speaks during class. Another will talk at great lengths, and will give their opinion when it's not asked, but never makes a point. It has absolutely nothing to do with what we are talking about. The third, he talks, but couldn't form a coherent sentence if he were pumped to the gills with Ritalin.

How could these people have passed an introductory speech course?!? Good god, man! My only hope for a decent grade is that my teacher sees what I have to work with. She's already shown her thoughts on my third classmate, as she held her head by her temples as he was trying to make his point and she finally said, "Just shoot straight to the point."

And the cherry that tops this shit-sundae, they are all communications majors.

Group work will be the death of me.

No comments: