Advice - feel I was unfairly failed on a course

taximike

taximike

taximike

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This week I did an RYA Cruising instructor course. It's basically a course that is supposed to teach you how to teach students how to sail. It is run for people who already hold an RYA Yachtmaster certificate (which is a boat licence) who want to use that licence to teach commercially.

I was failed, in her own words 'nothing to do with the sailing - it's just a social thing'. She actually said technically my sailing was probably the best. She failed me because she said in her opinion I lacked the required 'warmth' to teach sailing and she didn't think people would like me as a skipper. I am extremely offended by this because she effectively is brining her personal relationship with me into the what should be an objective decision. I asked for her examples and she came up with stupid things like 'oh - well you don't drink tea or coffee' and 'when I asked you if you wanted something to eat you'd normally say 'I don't mind' instead of giving a firm 'yes or no'. It was just ridiculous. She said I didn't offer to help with the washing up enough which is a) ridiculous in its own right and b) totally not true - I not only leapt to do as much as everyone else but every meal I offered.

Another stupid example she gave when I asked her to be more objective about my failure - she said I was curt when she asked me to move the salt off the worktop (by pointing at it and saying 'can you move this') and I just moved the salt off the worktop, instead of also moving the pepper, the loo-roll and some cleaning stuff. She then snapped at me FIRST saying 'AND THE REST OF IT' so I did indeed reply with 'give clearer instructions'. She didn't ask me to do those things 'ah yes but you should have seen what I was doing and assumed I meant all of it'.

I accept that being a sociable person is an important part of being a good skipper but she is just off the scale crazy in my view. What do you guys think? This course cost me £550 and another £150 in medicals etc.

However - in my view she should have to be objective and she quite simply could not - she just gave meaningless examples. So I conclude for whatever reason she simply didn't like me. Her argument is therefore that other people probably wouldn't like me therefore I would be a bad instructor.

Is this fair?
 
[TW]Fox;16599683 said:
Seems fair to me - teaching isn't just about your knowledge of the subject.
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I agree with your sentiments but from this side of the story it also sounds like she's a bit weird.

OP you're wrong in that it is purely objective though,
 
You could look at it in a positive light. You did indeed learn a very valuable lesson. Never **** off your instructor if they are also the ones that are grading you. :)
 
[TW]Fox;16599683 said:
Seems fair to me - teaching isn't just about your knowledge of the subject.
Click to expand...

You're correct, there is a 'social' aspect to teaching and it is a very important part of the job, a teacher must be able to interact well with their students. However, the reasons given by the teacher here (if we are to assume that they are the only ones) are pathetic. The biggest issue I see is the childishness regarding the salt incident and that's not huge.

If the examples given were more along the lines of always giving one-word answers, mumbling, being rude, talking down to people etc. then I think failing on that aspect would be quite acceptable, but given what has been said, it certainly doesn't seem fair.
 
I was primed to say "Sounds fair" because to teach you do need to be likeable, there are plenty of teachers who are not (I had more than my fair share) but I can see it being a reason for failing a course.

However your examples are pretty whack. She sounds a bit of a nutter and she has obviously taken a dislike to you in some way. If she FEELS this would rub off on everyone you deal with then fair enough but as of yet she has not given a single example of that being the case.

Sounds like she is a bit of a carebear who is offended by the smallest of things.
 
Sounds like she's taking 1 to 1 experinces with you as if that's what you were like with everyone else. She's being completely illogical from what you've mentioned.

"oh - well you don't drink tea or coffee" - Does she cognitively recognise the words that are coming out of her mouth?

'when I asked you if you wanted something to eat you'd normally say 'I don't mind' instead of giving a firm 'yes or no' - Errrrrrrr again what has this got to do with anything?

She said I didn't offer to help with the washing up - ???????? Again what the hell is this person got in for you? washing up? didn't YOU PAY for some sort of lessons?

Lastly the bit about getting you to move stuff, sounds like she cannot adequately teach herself or give clear and concise orders, she should have spoken to you about this before failing you so you could have time to adjust yourself.

In my imaginary world she needs to be told to grow up, probably a great big slap in the face as well, but in the real world well there's not much you can do but she sounds like a complete and utter tart.
 
Are you sure she was not spying on you with binocs. and saw you teaching the kids the hard way with the jib, knocking them overboard etc?

Lip reading your yelling "WHAT DID I TELL YOU, GET IN AND DO. IT. AGAIN." :D
 
If you feel you've been hard done by, complain.

If the situation is exactly how you've described it, you should have no problems...
 
Dolph said:
If you feel you've been hard done by, complain.

If the situation is exactly how you've described it, you should have no problems...
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Yes. They can reassess me. I'm happy with that. I'm not paying to be reassessed which is what she was implying I should do. Also I don't want her to be the reassessor which is difficult because she's the only one who teaches that course for the school.
 
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[TW]Fox;16599683 said:
Seems fair to me - teaching isn't just about your knowledge of the subject.
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Seems harsh but I agree with that really.

OR

say she made a pass at you and you turned her down;)
 
My mate failed a test interview for an IT Support desk position.
He was told that he had passed both written tests and 4 out of the 5 angry customer tests but another person had passed everything.
He asked what he failed on and the Manager said 'Remember the man who lost his email with an attachment and needed it in 10 minutes? Well you gave a lot of good advise but even with lots of prompting you failed to give the correct answer'.
My mate asked what the correct answer was and the Manager said you didn't tell him to look in his Outbox.
:confused:

He accepted the decision and on the way out he said 'Hold on, why would an email that as been sent to somebody end up in the Outbox? It can't get there unless you reply or you drag it in there'.
The Manager thought about it, knew he was at fault and then said 'Well your reply now is the real reason why you didn't get the job'.

Moral -
Your face fits or it doesn't.
 
It would end up in the Outbox for quite a few reasons. If it did not send then it would be there ;)

I've seen it plenty of times. Age old Shift+Del to get rid of an email stuck in there!
 
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