Confessions of a monster ?

I confess… that I shouted at my tutoring student today (sat)…
Well, it’s not totally my fault, but he really deserved it. I started tutoring him in early December, and asked him at that time to learn his f… list of irregular verbs, and, still, in May… he may know 10% of it. I hate doing the parrot teacher. Idem with his vocabulary… Teaching him ten times the same words, and seeing that he was incapable of copying down properly words of vocabulary in his notebook as homeworks… just drove me crazy. So, last week, I was a bit upset but controlled myself. This time, I burst out a little… Well, that might sometimes happen when I tutor in France, things like that… But usually, parents are away, the house is so big that they cannot hear that my voice does not sound really nice. Well, I did not really shout, but spoke loud enough for the mum to jump in the living room and say : “ I don’t like the way you talk to my son!”. So, I was just explaining that a French-English, English-French dictionary was not a piece of furniture in a bedroom but something that deserved to be opened as often as possible. I explained that learning things is not something you do the day before the exams (do as I say, do not do as I do…), that I was sick and tired of repeating the same old song (learn your verbs…), and that the French Ministry of Education is not paying that poor English teacher to teach wrong things to these over-spoilt kids from the French Lycée (usually, when I notice a spelling mistake, or something wrong in his notebook, he always accuse his teacher… I do not trust my naughty student, and in case of doubt, support the class teacher…), and that I do not find that it is normal that I have to do exactly the same stuff as what he does in class (because, of course, he forgets everything). Then, when the mother said: “I do not like the way you talk to my son”, came the defile of a farewell to shoes, bags, cute clothes… if I do not survive for the last two weeks. Money is still money unfortunately… The legendary patient tutor had met her limits today in front of her reluctant student today… So, flatly apologised to the mom, pretended to have a very tough week, and business is business… Two weeks to go, still…