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Has a tutor ever made you cry?

I feel like a complete baby here but I've missed a lot of uni recently due to illness and I emailed my tutor to explain it and assure him that once I'm well again my attendance will improve considerably, and I just got a reply pretty much ignoring my email and just quite sarcastically saying that my grades will probably improve if I stop skiving (didn't say skiving but he implied it). I don't know how other people would react to this but I felt a mixture of embarrassment that he thinks I'm just slacking off and anger, which made me cry - I'm not good dealing with criticism like this! Anyone have similar experiences or advice?
Reply 1
Try not to take it too personally :hugs:

I know it's horrible to be accused of something you've not done (ie skiving when you were genuinely ill) but you have to remember that this tutor has probably known a hell of a lot of students who do skive and has lost patience. Also tutors are human, it wouldn't surprise me if he'd just had an argument with his wife or whatever and taken it out on you. Do you have any medical certificates to prove your illness? I'm sure once you're better and your attendance improves he'll see you're not a skiver, and try catch up on what you've missed so you're not too behind :smile:

I had a tutor that used to pick on me, basically humiliating me in front of the rest of the class because I wasn't very good at the subject (Russian). Then one week he became really nice and has been fine since, still not sure what happened there :p:
Thank you! This has made me feel a lot better :smile:
Unfortunately I don't have any doctors notes or the like, I don't have a GP here and I sort of just rested and hoped for the best, which probably wasn't the best idea!

That's so weird! haha, well I'm sure you're not complaining! :P
Reply 3
No. But then I've never been in a situation like that.

Tutors are people. Some people are gits. Simple as.

As already said, don't take it personally. He's made assumptions - he's the one in the wrong. I reckon the only way to prove you haven't been skiving is to work hard (independently, at least at first) to improve your grades. Saying that they will improve means nothing.

Good luck!
Original post by cat_in_the_hat
I feel like a complete baby here but I've missed a lot of uni recently due to illness and I emailed my tutor to explain it and assure him that once I'm well again my attendance will improve considerably, and I just got a reply pretty much ignoring my email and just quite sarcastically saying that my grades will probably improve if I stop skiving (didn't say skiving but he implied it). I don't know how other people would react to this but I felt a mixture of embarrassment that he thinks I'm just slacking off and anger, which made me cry - I'm not good dealing with criticism like this! Anyone have similar experiences or advice?


I know I'm jumping in quite late with this one but the same has happened to me. I went out to South Africa in October of last year and came back with glandular fever. It was horrific and I was in and out of hospital and was eventually signed off for 2 weeks by my GP. I know you said you haven't got one but you should get some form of proof. I think that pharmacists can give you a letter saying that they've given you advice to use a certain medicine because you've presented them with symptoms.
In my report from college, one of my teachers made a very sarcastic comment about my attendance and how it was going to change my grades. It was really difficult to deal with because I knew I was taking lots of time off, my attendance was around 25% that month but the college weren't very helpful at all.
At the end of the day, it is easy for tutors to say things like that as they are human as others have said and they've most likely had someone really lazy who has just blamed it on 'illness'.
Hope you're feeling better!

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