The Impossible Dream
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''To dream the impossible dream, to fight the unbeatable foe, to bear with unbearable sorrow, to run where the brave dare not go, to right the unrightable wrong, to love, pure and chaste, from afar; to try when your arms are too weary; to reach the unreachable star. This is my Quest---to follow that star, no matter how hopeless, no matter how far, to fight for the right without question or pause'' (The Impossible Dream - lyrics by Joe Darion, music by Mitch Leigh)
Nightskye 2004 Tempest's Nanowrimo
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Monday, March 19, 2007
To give you an idea of my weekend, here is are two e-mails I sent to UConn's continuing education department:Saturday's e-mail Dear Ms. P., I'm writing this e-mail to let you know how disappointed and frustrated I am with UConn's Continuing Studies paralegal litigation certificate program at Avery Point Campus in New London. The first week, Attorney C. ended class at 3:00 p.m. both days. During that time, he read from the workbook and text verbatim. I feel that the text is outdated and the workbook is rife with typos. The second week, Attorney P., thankfully, didn't read word for word out of the books. However, she let also let us out at 3:00 p.m. on Saturday and then at 11:00 a.m. the following Sunday. I live in Guilford. It's at least a 45 minute drive each way to get to campus. If Sunday's quiz and review were only going to be 2 hours long, why didn't we take it on Saturday and leave at the scheduled time of 5:00 p.m.? That way, when your office failed to give Attorney P. the class materials for Sunday, (She said it was a movie.) -- the reason why we were let go at 11:00 a.m. --, we could have just stayed home on Sunday if there were no other materials to go over. Now, it is the third week and there was bad weather. Both the UConn website and the telephone hotline stated that there were classes on Saturday. We called Avery Point campus, and their message was still playing for Friday, March 16th. We called several times. As of 9:30 a.m., Avery Point's message hadn't changed. The entire class showed up, but not the teacher. There wasn't an e-mail message nor a message on my answering machine when I got home explaining why the attorney never came to class. I drove all the way up to campus and back for nothing. At this point, I have invested a great deal of time and effort in this class. I've also paid for 84 hours of classwork and instruction, which I am not getting. What are my recourses? Am I even able to get my money back at this point? I don't want to drop out of the program, but quite frankly I feel cheated and aggravated. I look forward to hearing your thoughts on this matter. Sincerely, Sunday's e-mail Dear Ms. P., I'm following up on yesterday's e-mail regarding the class cancellation on Saturday. Apparently, the correct number to dial was on the order confirmations we received in the mail and you had decided to cancel Saturday's course on Friday afternoon. I had not realized this. Attorney P. did a good job of covering Saturday and Sunday's coursework today and generously offered her time on Thursday night for anyone who needed extra help. However, we rushed through the last two chapters and she let us go at 4:00 p.m. I felt that we could have completely finished the chapters if we stayed until five. Now, I realize that the attorneys are very busy. If it's better suited for them to teach 9-3, perhaps just adding an extra weekend to the certicate program would be the way around this. In any event, that's my two cents. Sincerely, *** So I feel a little chagrined about the first e-mail, but being completely rushed over Chapter 15 and 16 (the chapters Purge and I were having trouble with) because she really wanted to let the class out at 3 and we all *forced* her to finish, made me feel OK with the whole e-mail process. Especially since, two other people from class agreed with us. I'm not the flamer/hate e-mailer type. But I'm paying for this class to be taught how to do this. Anything I don't know at the end of this, works against me at my job. And certainly works against Purge who will be thrown in cold. Oh and she told us on Sunday that the movie Uconn never gave her was The Rainmaker with Matt Damon. (Hmmm that would have only have been 2 out of the 8 hours on Sunday . . . ) Now, when I did training or teaching I made sure I was prepared. If she knew on Saturday night she didn't have the Rainmaker, why didn't she go out and rent it? Or at least tell us, hey tonight or sometime in the next two weeks watch The Rainmaker and we can discuss it in class. (She also let slip that the day before our final, they want us to watch A Civil Action with John Travolta.) As Purge put it, "That's one hell of a rental fee." I put them on my Netflix list. The bottom line is we read eight or so chapters and the corresponding workbook sheets in two weeks and then go over them on Saturday and Sunday and then are tested on them the next week. If I have the wrong information on my workbook answers, then I'm studying and reinforcing the wrong information. And the workbook has poorly worded questions and the text is NINE years old. It's a joke. I suppose you get what you pay for though and this was the cheapest I've seen a basic paralegal course. So we have three more weekends. Next weekend is the quiz on the chapters we went over. The weekend after that we're in the law library. We have to go to West Hartford, but I'm not sure where. She also tells us that West Hartford doesn't open until noon on Sunday. And actually, if it's the UConn library on Elizabeth Street in Hartford, it doesn't open until one. I can't find confirmation that the West Hartford campus has a law library. The Quinnipiac law library in Hamden opens at 9 a.m. both days. But she said she didn't want to drive there. (*sigh*) I'm trying to broker a deal that we can just do our law research in Quinnipiac on that Sunday so we don't have to drive an hour both ways for some bullshit two hour class. And then the last weekend is our final exam. I can't wait for this to be over. The good news is this weekend is our final Corporate Law class. We really like the attorney teaching this module and our final exam is on Sunday. I feel comfortable with the material. We had a great two days of classes. The bad news is I still have half a book to read for it. (We spent most of our time and energy on the civil ligation course work last week) ::shrug:: Whatcha gonna do?
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