Yesterday I came across an interesting Audioboo shared on Bernie Goldbach’s Facebook page. It was a recording by Paul O’Mahony (Omaniblog) entitled ‘Education Today in Tipperary: the Goldbach papers (1) – an open letter to multimedia man.

In this Audioboo, Paul O’Mahony describes the world’s perception of those in education:

“The outside world has a perception of education….people in education are having a doss. They’re having time out from the hard job of earning their living and they’re all just taking it easy….”

I wondered who Paul was referring to.  It had to be third level LECTURERS who were the culprits!!! While their students were keeping themselves busy, swotting and studying for exams,  lecturers were having an easy time of it!

“…and all these students are just going out and getting drunk and having it off with each other….they don’t do anything hard when they’re at University…..they’ll all wake up after it’s all over and they get a rude awakening and face into the job market”

No way!!!!!! This was about the STUDENTS??!!!

Students are taking it easy and ‘dossing’! Does this mean that people think that I, as a mature student, am dossing twice as much by ‘taking time out of the hard job of earning my living’?  I think, for those who share this opinion, I’d like to set the record straight.

Sure, there are those who start college and think they’ll sit back and do nothing and be handed their degree on a plate, but, to the best of my knowledge, they either leave after a few months, or seriously cop themselves on when repeats come around.  There are others who are lucky enough to be able to put in a minimal amount of work and scrape through exams.  It’s these that will find themselves waking up when they’ve gotten their degree.

As a mature student, I am certainly not having an ‘easy’ time, either financially or timewise, as a result of my decision to return to college. Tomorrow I will pay €1,500 out of my savings for the second year of my degree course.  To have to pay this much money and have people think I am on the ‘doss’ upsets me.  I could take my savings, spend it in on a new wardrobe in Pamela Scott’s, and have everyone tell me I look gorgeous, instead of having to suffer comments like ‘Oh, Susan, you’re letting yourself go. What’s with the roots?’, or ‘How long have you had THOSE hideous things under your eyes’?

Paul O’Mahony went on to say to Bernie Goldbach, in his Audioboo:

“….you’re actually expecting students to write creatively…..this flies entirely in the face of most of our views that students simply cut and paste things from the internet and pass them as their own and call that creative…..ducking and diving…so I am entirely encouraged that you’re expecting them to write in a creative way, provided you’re pretty tough on them and don’t let them away with writing a load of old cliches and copying other peoples’ ideas…..”

Ah here now!  In what college would you get away with ‘cutting and pasting’ and passing items off as your own?  Every lecturer I met last semester warned us all of the dangers of plagiarism and had the majority of us scared shi…shivering!!  Do people really believe that all students are a bunch of empty headed, vacant staring, morons that can’t think for themselves, or is it really that simple to get a good grade on an assignment using the ‘copy and paste’ facility?  Am I just a bit thick for believing that they, in authority, really do have ‘software that can tell where you’ve copied the stuff you’ve pasted’?  Someone give me the inside story, PLEASE, because it seems I’m wasting an awful lot of hours at night trying to be original!

Finally, Paul wound up the Audioboo by saying:
“I will be listening to your progress reports, as a tax payer, and I’ll be looking forward to you giving them a really good, tough, time so that they’ll become even better than they are right now”

Lord God!!  A tough time? Won’t anyone think of the students? Have a heart!

Paul has listened to Bernie’s Audioboos and has admitted, in his own Audioboo, that Bernie is a very fast talker. This must give some insight into our Social Media class (almost typed callous there for a minute) on the Clonmel campus.  Bernie Goldbach is the Furius Baco of lecturers, (technical problems aside).  Once he begins to speak, you hold on tight and keep your eyes and ears wide open because, if you don’t, you’ll miss out on some vital thrill somewhere along the line.

All I can say is, be prepared for some excellent progress reports, Paul! At €1,500 this is the most expensive ride I’ve ever taken and I, for one, certainly don’t intend to miss out on any of the action during it, or any of the satisfaction at the end!

Audioboo Bernie Goldbach College education exams Omaniblog Paul O'Mahony students