Kids Philosophy

By: YASMIN ALDAMEN

 

Dialogue’s absence between characters of this story was done deliberately, not by chance

As a little kid who has a sweet heart filled with kindness feelings and innocent intents, Jessica loved all people out of the goodness of her heart thinking that they are kind naturally; exchange good with each other. One of her principles in life was: "If people do their works from the bottom of their hearts, they must be appreciated and get what they deserve".

Really, in many cases she gained what she deserved; for example, at school she was devoting all her time for studying, so she kept on getting the highest percentage average till she entered university by her effort. But the situation was different at university; injustice was present many times; students weren’t given the grade which they deserve.

Jessica never lost hope. She was always using her own initiatives with her innocent thoughts saying to herself: "diligent persons should take what they deserve, there is no reason makes people steal others right… If that happened before, may be this time will not be; once comes; once leaves".

At the winter of 2007, she registered for a course, the name of which was CALL (Computer Assisted Language Learning). The strange matter with this course was, on the one hand that it was put arbitrarily; the instructors who were responsible for deciding the course material didn't determine it properly, especially because that course was taught for the first time at the Linguistic & Phonetics Department. On the other hand, it was related to computer science more than English language specialization.

At the first day of the semester, Jessica knew that the instructor of her class was Semseeing; the one who students always were talking about his bad treatment of them. But Jessica, as usual, initiated with her innocent, nice and kind intents, she said to herself that, “Maybe they exaggerated in describing him". So she decided not to drop the course as some students did.

Unfortunately, day after day, Semseeing was proving what they said; his holier-than-thou attitude was clear in dealing with students. He was treating them badly and was speaking in an arrogant way without concerning if he hurt others feelings. Furthermore, half of the class’s time was wasting in shouting and telling students off for silly matters and the other half for empty burbling about nonsense speech; he seemed that he wanted to create prestige for himself in order to make students fear him.

Jessica kept on studying hard, as a result; she got a high mark in the mid-term exam. Twenty marks of the total grade were dedicated for designing a website for English Teaching. The website of which Semseeing made students get tired because of its endless requirements. When the course’s coordinator asked his students to evaluate two websites; he asked his class to do five. If the coordinator asked to make three links, he asked to make eight…..

He wasted all students time in collecting large material to design the website. He thought when he made that, he concealed his failure in teaching the course, but that was so clear. Sometimes he was inviting the course’s coordinator to give the lecture instead of him because he was an ignorant of how to teach the students the lesson. An ignorant but pretends as an expert!

Nobody knows why the department allowed him to teach that course when he couldn’t teach it!

Although Jessica wasn’t professional in websites design, she insisted on learning that by herself till she completed her own website. She collected large creative material from the Internet; videos, sounds files, useful links, animations, attractive backgrounds and wrote descriptions and evaluations for some websites. Everything was creative and remarkable, on the one hand, according to her level in websites designing, and on the other hand, in comparison with her colleagues’ websites. Not only she did what the students were asked to do, but she also did include many things as extra activities.

Jessica spent nearly seventy hours in just one lab of the university’s labs collecting all that material, furthermore; the other hours which she spent in the other labs at the university and at home. The website's designing took a large space of other courses time which she didn’t give them the same attention thinking that as long as she gave effort to elaborate her website, she would get what she deserved.

Jessica continued working on her website some months; she was going to the university at 8:00 morning, coming home back till 5:00, and resuming designing from 6:00 till 1:00 and some days till 3:00 am.

When it was time for the presentation, some of the students did their presentations; although many of their websites were uncompleted and lose many requirements, many of them got full marks. Really, the instructor had a strange personality; he was saying, “Who doesn’t do all things ask, will lose marks or get zero.” But, at the presentation, he was giving the marks randomly without at least any technique of students’ evaluation.

At the next day, the lab was reserved for an exam of other course, so the rest of the students couldn’t do their presentation like their colleagues. Semseeing also didn’t appear at that day although it was the last lecture which made a number of students wait him near his office. Some students got bored with waiting him which made them leave. After a while, he came angry and told the students to up the stairs to his office to do their presentations. They followed him and one after one, they did their presentations. All of them also got 20-20.

Jessica was the last student who did a presentation at that day; Semseeing gave her just one minute and half to do it which showed bias and unfairness. He browsed just 10% of the whole website justifying that by his saying,” I am busy! I can’t see everything.” If he didn't want to see it, why did he request all that?

The effort of seventy hours at the university's labs, double of them at home, neglect of studying other courses to design the website…. all that was just in one minute and half! At the end, he said to Jessica that he would put her 21-20!!!

At the next day, the rest of the students did their presentation, although they missed many things in their websites, and some of them didn’t spend more than 10 hours at the lab, nay there are some of them didn't spend one hour in the lab, he put 20-20 for most of them!

Jessica as usual didn’t lose hope, she thought that when she gets a high mark in the final exam, she will got (A) in the course.

That is what logic proves, but do they always allow logic to prove facts?

Days passed till it was time for the final exam. It was the 29 of May, the coordinator of the course, who was teaching the other two classes, was present, but Semseeing wasn’t there.

When the exam started, students began with Q1, Q2, and Q3… till Q50 the last question of the multiple choice exam. The questions came as a shock because they not only were from external material which students were uninformed about by Semseeing. He as well allowed some students to open certain programs which could enable them to answer the unexplained exam which he may be unable to answer, but he passed Jessica and some of the students who were sitting in other section without informing them to open those programs like their colleagues, as a result; they couldn’t answer the aerial exam!

When the exam finished, he was standing by the door to gag the complaints of the students by threatening them. He said, “Whoever says that I didn’t explain the exam material, will take a suspension!” He thought that threatening students may protect him from their complaints.

After all students went out, Semseeing took a copy of the marks to his office to prepare a secret mixture not only for his class but also for the two classes of the coordinator to save his face’s water; he didn't teach, didn’t inform about the exam material like the coordinator, didn't show fairness in the evaluation, didn’t give a look at the websites, didn’t take the hours which were spent in the labs into consideration, so at least he wanted to persuade himself that he made something. Thus, he put the grades scale!

When the grades appeared, it was a great shock to Jessica, who gave a remarkable effort, but it was a nice thing to those who didn’t give that distinguished effort. She became sure that all what students said about him was true. Jessica was doubtful, so she decided to look after the secret of the strange grades. After an intensive search, in which she used her private sources, she found the authentic marks and the fake ones. When she compared them with each other, it was proved that Semseeing changed the marks in behalf of his favorite students; he also put 15-20 just for Jessica on website’s project instead of 20-20 like the rest of the class.

She said to herself, “If he was dishonest when he said he put me 21-20, at least he could put 20; he gave it to those whose projects weren’t outstanding, nay uncompleted!”

His treachery of the students, explain nothing about the exam material, threatening them and eulogizing himself were what made Semseeing fall from students’ eyes in general and especially Jessica who saw the original marks which revealed his matter.

What really hurt her was that he didn’t appreciate any of her efforts in all semester, especially the many hours she spent at the university's labs and home, and the nights she kept a round-the-clock vigil to design the website.

She was a studious person, if he told students about the material of the exam; she would look for it to study it.

Jessica refused to be one of those who put their heads into sands as ostriches, so she wrote a complaint’s letter in which she asked correcting the grade explaining all what happened and enclosed the concrete evidences with it.

Students who got high grades were very happy, so of course they would not sign the complaint, and some of those whose fear was greater than signing it were frightened to complain, but they encouraged her, invoked for her, and they just reviled him and swore not to register any new course with him.

Jessica was unsurprised, she said to herself, "Even the others left me, I can continue walking alone.”

After a good effort, she found just two students to sign the paper. Without hesitating, she went to the vice-president of Humanities Faculties Affairs to explain him the matter and to give him the complaint's paper. She asked him many times that he brings a copy of the original marks from its real source, but he transferred it to the faculty’s dean and asked her to go to him.

Jessica and one of her colleagues who signed the complaint went there. Not only the dean was there, but his assistant for Students Affairs “Bali Elbali” also was. He was playing devil's advocate by his try to focus on silly things and ignore the matter’s essence. He was interested just to know the source of the original marks astonished how she got them and alluded that students shouldn’t see any course’s marks!

He was poking his nose into words interrupting the dean like jack-in-the-box, as if he was defending himself to win the case. At the end, the dean asked the two complainants to keep the complaint’s matter secret, and said seriously that he would send Semseeing back to his faculty if that was proved true; he meant the faculty of Educational Sciences in which Semseeing was teaching before moving to the faculty of Arts.

In the next day, it seemed that Semseeing knew who the three complainants are; Jessica suspected that the dean's assistant told him.

Semseeing started blabbing and threatened to complain those who distrusted his honesty to the Ministry of Justice!!!!! Every class he entered he was eulogizing his honesty, impartiality and disinterest!!!

Jessica, by her private methods, knew that he went to the Faculty of IT to delete the original marks of the computerized exam, the results of which were saved there. But Jessica was ready for that; so she kept a copy of them with her.

One day, Jessica went to the dean's office to give him a CD-ROM on which the website that she designed was to prove that it didn’t lack any of the requirements, and to ask him to compare it with other websites to prove that “Semseeing” biased toward certain students. “Bali Elbali”, the dean’s assistant, was very bad in treating the student; he prevented her from seeing the dean and was very arrogant in talking with her! But Jessica insisted on seeing the dean.

In the next day, she went to the vice-president to tell him about what “Bali Elbali” did. The vice-president told him off ordering him not to do this again. He as usual eluded and denied that.

After some days, the dean abandoned the matter transferring it to an investigation committee from the Faculty of Educational Sciences.

Jessica and just one colleague went to meet the committee which was consisted of three members. The committee supposed that the reason behind the absence of the third complainant, who attended the dean’s meeting before, was because Semseeing compelled her not to come.

The committee’s members followed a comic style in asking them thinking that they are in a cloak-and–dagger movie; they separated the two complainants; every one stayed a whole hour in a spacious hall answering their repetitive questions which rained on every complainant as the beats which the only fighter in the battleground receives!

One of those members was trying to whitewash Semseeing not to be in the wrong, so who was in the wrong?

Jessica surprised that the CD-ROM and the papers, which she gave to the dean, weren’t given to the committee! She asked them to bring them from the dean to prove what she said, but they said carelessly okay that they would ask him to send them.

At the end, Jessica asked them when she can come to know about the result of the complaint. One of them said, "Don't come. We inform you if there is anything. It will take a long time. We also will call the instructor to ask him about the matter."

One of the good results of spreading the news of what happened to Semseeing, whom students feared; in the department was that the complaint against him acted as a deterrent to others like the head of the department “Dolmi”, who as well was practicing changing the students’ marks in behalf of his favorite students. He changed the students’ marks of “English for Medical Purposes” course of which Jessica went to check her mark but “Bali Elbali” said that they didn’t allow students to see their marks!

He learnt a lesson made him stop changing students’ marks according to his mood. Students got benefit from Jessica‘s complaint thinking that he gave them what they deserved without recognizing what the real reason behind that.

“People of principles, who strive to get rights back, didn’t get them; but those who didn’t do anything gain all benefits. Really, Persons grow crops under the hot sunshine, but others receive their fruits while they’re sitting down in the shade.”

Days, weeks and months passed without any news about the matter .It seemed that the committee sent the case to gallows to face execution!

Jessica, who was deeply concerned about that, sent the president of the university an enquiry about the result of the committee’s investigation in the vain hope that they would tell her anything about the complaint, but there was no reply.

“You may be heard if you call alive, but there is no life of whom you called.”

Even all that, Jessica‘s still optimistic that simple rights, as well as great ones, must come back some day!

To do all your effort to regain your right, even it was tiny; it is an important thing in order not to be used to lose more rights.

That was a philosophy of a kid believed that justice overcomes injustice and right triumphs over wrong in simple issues before complex ones; but whales use certain philosophy in deforming facts to save themselves all the time.

Then, which philosophy may prevail?