Why Plan?

I used to have a "Type A" branded on my body until I had it surgically removed. It stood for my compulsive need to have everything just so, with miles of lists to remember to put things just so and then more lists to remind me to update the lists of things I wanted to remember. I attribute this to the fact that my mother was not the best of housekeepers and we once lost my brother for four days somewhere in the house. 


If one were to believe in karma, I must have been a bad boy/girl/neutered animal in a previous life, for I am now suffering for it in Hungary, the land of lack of planning. In our 9 3/12, opps, let's see smallest common denominator. Hmm.... 9 1/4 years here, if I had one page of a best selling novel written for each time someone in authority did not plan in advance, I would outsell J.K. Rowling.   


OMG, they drive me nuts. How many times have I heard "We need this by tomorrow, you cannot delay with it." When asked "How long have you know this?" The answer is usually longer than a moon cycle around Venus. 


Case in point. For my first 4 years at the university, we had the full week off before Easter and then the following Monday and Tuesday. Come the fifth year at the university, planning the norm, we were traumatized when plans were made to find out they changed the rules. We would now have Monday and Tuesday as teaching days and then off Wednesday through the following Tuesday. This is the way it has been since. We plan our courses, schedules, and even student competitions accordingly. 


Then there is this year. Same routine. Off Wednesday through Tuesday, come back to teach on the following Wednesday. Then someone up, up, up in the ivory fortifications decides that the Monday and Tuesday are "no man's days", so we should have them off. To hell with the fact that all of us who teach on Mondays (I don't) or Tuesdays (I do) have planned readings, assignments, and the entire semester coverage over X number of weeks, is now in disarray. 


Some native instructors are even more furious than I as they have student competitions scheduled for that week.

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