I May Have Lost the Battle...

I am a college student. Not just any college student, a nursing student. I go to a community college in Ohio that has a nursing program with an outstanding reputation. It is very hard to get into it and it is extremely hard to keep up with the amount of work involved. My program has a modified grading scale, meaning that is not based on the standard grading scale where 70% is a "C". Our lowest "C" is an 80%. This means that if a student ends the course with a 79%, they fail. If a student fails, they have to put in an application for reinstatement. After that, the reinstatement committee votes on whether or not the student can continue on in the program. As a student, you are only afforded this opportunity once. Sounds reasonable, right? It's a little harsh, but it does make for some safe nurses in the community, right? Well...maybe. The sad, ugly truth is that some of these nursing professors have huge ideas of grandeur. Their tenure makes them invincible and they will go out of their way to do damage control for one another. Simply put, they care more about their peers than they do their patients. Many of them haven't actually practiced nursing in years, yet they are the ones teaching students how to care for people. They walk all over students who voice their opinions or concerns, to the point that students not dare speak up about anything for the fear of being "targeted" or "red-carded".

I have been "red-carded".

Unfortunately for them, they mistook my silence for ignorance, my calmness for acceptance, and my kindness for a weakness. I always treat others with respect, even if I want to dig their eyes out with a rusty fork. I don't care who you are: the President, the mailman, or the crack-head down the street. I will always treat you with respect. I have followed the chain of command outlined in my student handbook. I have suffered through meetings in which the main goal is to convince me that I'm incompetent. Nice try, but I can't be that stupid if I'm three quarters away from graduating. It only takes one person to make a change.

They may have won the battle, but...