View Full Version : people do NOT read
I was planning on running a camp at my school on Friday, the students had the day off school. I used the same advertising as all the other schools and sent it out electronically. All was good. I ended up only having 10 kids sign up so I arranged to have a school close by take them and it was pretty easy. One parent seemed to be confused but I thought we had everything worked out. He did not send in all the paperwork so I arranged to have him bring it in and told the PS what to expect. I desperately needed that day to catch up and rest without the regular stress, I let all my calls go to messages.
I saw I got a message on Friday when I was interviewing from this dad and he was upset and didn't end up leaving his child at the camp. All the teachers were also at the school so I checked in and this family threatens to take their child out of school all the time. I know my colleague runs a good camp so I wanted to check things out before I called him back on Monday.
I just got an email from my colleague and she said his problem was that he thought it was free! He told her that I advertised it was free! No way, I do not offer full day camp for free. It reminds me of the parents who say that they are SURE they signed their kid up for a club on Fridays, there have not been clubs on Fridays, this is my 5th year. Besides who expects to have a full day camp, (7am to 6pm) for free! This is not one of my families I go out of my way to scholarship, not on free lunch, and doesn't have their child in any of the programs I do offer under my grant for no charge.
Frustrating to have that happen. Something changed in his world and he vented at whoever was handy. We cannot prevent things like that from happening despite our best efforts but maybe the good part is to acknowledge that it happens so seldom because you are well-organized.
Thank you Razz, it does rarely happen. This year I am working on not needing to handle everything personally to make my program run. More on-line registrations and email newsletters than talking to the 225 kids personally. So some of this is bound to happen. I was super happy that I didn't have any families call me on Friday asking where camp was! That means my communication to them was accurate and timely.
Ultralight
10-30-16, 6:29pm
I say this a lot. But I think the stress of your job is literally causing you ill mental and physical health.
UA, I think I could do better to balance it all out and leave it at work. It is a stressful job, but I also let it get to me.
freshstart
10-30-16, 6:56pm
I think she processes the stressors here well and comes up with good plans, although the job certainly does not sound easy
I find this a lot in teaching, that everybody but one person will "get it" from written instructions, but there is always an outlier who reads something a different way
iris lilies
10-30-16, 7:39pm
I say this a lot. But I think the stress of your job is literally causing you ill mental and physical health.
Yep, repetitive.
I think ZG is negotiating the pathways of her job pretty well these days. She sounds more in charge and confident than in previous years. Her salary is creeping up to be around a pretty decent income, even for a somehwhat expensive Denver area.
Thank you all, I have been feeling more of an ease with work in general. I don't flip out as easily over things. I would not want to read my old posts from 2 years or more ago, kinda cringing.
I recently saw that a huge factor in the times I was freaking out was a lack of confidence. There was a lack of confidence that the world would be okay and safe for me coming out of my marriage and long divorce process. Then there was a lack of confidence in myself in a basic way. That shows itself in many ways. I heard often that I should not need outside validation, but it is a process of internal and external. Pretty hard to internally validate all the time, so more external validation has been very supportive to grow in confidence and ability to internally validate (like the nice and observant things people have been saying here). A HUGE boost has been teaching mindfulness more, I am having so much fun. I wrote a nice long post about all the work I am doing in that area not too long ago, so if you want to know the details I will find that and boot it up.
Gardenarian
10-30-16, 9:18pm
Email is confusing, and I get a lot of emails from dd's school that assume I have background knowledge of events/acronyms/ways of doing things or say "your child has been informed...." As though teenagers take notes of announcements and present them to their parents.
I'm not saying YOUR info was unclear, but I find it really helpful when things are numbered and listed - time, place, cost, to whom to write the check, contact info, etc.
Instead of which I get long paragraphs explaining the reasons the class is going to a play and I have to sift through it to try and get the relevant info (often not included.)
Anyhow, glad you're having fun and doing such good work!
Thank you, of course this year we totally changed camps which has increased my work load significantly. We have a template in google forms for the registration, I know there was some difficulty at first while I was learning. I can use that to talk to the dad, of course I feel bad that there was a misunderstanding but I know the information was there. I think I will edit the form for the next one for more bullet points and less text. I had worked on one like that but in the end went with the one that worked.
A lot of my stuff is still on paper flyers and I am going to edit those so the parents take the top part of the flyer and only give me the bottom registration part. It cuts down on misunderstandings if they have a copy. I also am going to make a large calendar poster, in all my free time!, for all the after school offerings to go in the hallway.
iris lilies
10-30-16, 9:53pm
Thank you, of course this year we totally changed camps which has increased my work load significantly. We have a template in google forms for the registration, I know there was some difficulty at first while I was learning. I can use that to talk to the dad, of course I feel bad that there was a misunderstanding but I know the information was there. I think I will edit the form for the next one for more bullet points and less text. I had worked on one like that but in the end went with the one that worked.
A lot of my stuff is still on paper flyers and I am going to edit those so the parents take the top part of the flyer and only give me the bottom registration part. It cuts down on misunderstandings if they have a copy. I also am going to make a large calendar poster, in all my free time!, for all the after school offerings to go in the hallway.
dear god yes, bullet points. Please. Thank you! Haha.
People don't read, period. I run into it all the time at work. Frankly, I think the non-native English speakers I deal with internationally are better readers than the native English speakers.
Some people are stupider than others and I have to use bullet points. One sentence paragraphs aren't even sufficient for some of these folks.
ToomuchStuff
10-31-16, 12:42am
People don't read?
Ever been behind someone who reads something and think it doesn't apply to them? I have. (Oh, this cash only sign, means I can use my debit card)>8)
People read, but they tend to read what they want. If something is already on their mind, it can get inserted, unfortunately. Reading, is NOT the same as COMPREHENSION.
And none of this takes into account how someone can mix up or liminate lttrs in wrds and r brain may auto correct for that and spelling and reed through it, or be a bad enough spellor to not know the differences.
Ultralight
10-31-16, 7:01am
How do you hide something from an American?
Put it in a book!
No matter how clear you write something, there will ALWAYS be someone who does not understand it. The problem is that these people cause the most amount of work and stress. My sister is a teacher, I had no idea what strange ideas in misinterpretations parents and schoolkids come up with.
And I thought it is difficult to write presentations board members can understand ;-)
sweetana3
10-31-16, 9:13am
And this parent might be working on the assumption that if he makes enough noise and shows anger that he will get his child in free. People are always trying to push the envelope.
Dealt with a woman making suicide threats about taxes owed. Her husband, when we finally got to talk to him, told us that is what she always does when pressed to do something she does not want to do. Stops most people in their tracks.
Because JayPee and Sweetana are exactly right, that is why I keep rewriting rules to accommodate new ways that people misunderstand, sometimes deliberately for advantage, the rules I have written.
I send out repetitive notices. Sometimes I make them affirm the list of rules, that they understand and abide by them. All computer applications do this; why shouldn't you? If the parents have to confirm that they have received the rules and understand the rules, on the list of rules themselves, then they can't claim they never saw it or did not receive it. I would think in your line of work, they would have to do this, for liability reasons.
catherine
10-31-16, 10:00am
Some people are stupider than others and I have to use bullet points. One sentence paragraphs aren't even sufficient for some of these folks.
A little bit OT, but I find this is true even with highly educated post-docs. My research reports used to be 30-page Word document pages. Now, clients want 7 pages of bullet points. And every powerpoint slide has to be illustrated with an infographic to make it more visual and pleasant to read. I'm supposed to distill $40k of research dollars into 21 bullets. It is very difficult.
JaneV2.0
10-31-16, 12:13pm
A little bit OT, but I find this is true even with highly educated post-docs. My research reports used to be 30-page Word document pages. Now, clients want 7 pages of bullet points. And every powerpoint slide has to be illustrated with an infographic to make it more visual and pleasant to read. I'm supposed to distill $40k of research dollars into 21 bullets. It is very difficult.
That technique was emphasized in my technical writing classes. People don't read crowded text. They also counseled us to write for a 13-year old audience, IIRC. We are indeed devolving.
greenclaire
10-31-16, 12:41pm
I've noticed it with science textbooks too. When I look back at my older ones from 10-15years ago they have many more solid blocks of text. The newer ones are full of colourful images but very short bullet pointed text.
That technique was emphasized in my technical writing classes. People don't read crowded text. They also counseled us to write for a 13-year old audience, IIRC. We are indeed devolving.
I think it has something to do with the amount of visual information that we see every day, and the number of things we are expected to react quickly too. Texts, tweets, Facebook posts, super-short news stories, sound bytes, video game situations, get-back-to-me-right-away emails ... responding to those things for hours a day doesn't seem to set us up for reading. I love reading books, and yet I find if I don't read for a couple of days I read for the first few minutes in a way that seems to be really scittery... my eyes bounce down the page as if I'm skimming for something, even when I'm not.
That said, I like bullet points for notices and such!
iris lilies
10-31-16, 4:36pm
I don't see anything wrong with liking bullet points, she whined.
I think it has something to do with the amount of visual information that we see every day, and the number of things we are expected to react quickly too. Texts, tweets, Facebook posts, super-short news stories, sound bytes, video game situations, get-back-to-me-right-away emails ... responding to those things for hours a day doesn't seem to set us up for reading. I love reading books, and yet I find if I don't read for a couple of days I read for the first few minutes in a way that seems to be really scittery... my eyes bounce down the page as if I'm skimming for something, even when I'm not.
That said, I like bullet points for notices and such!
I'm glad to read that others have the jumpy eyesight thing. I thought it was me. I used to read a lot of books; now I read the same amount of text--or more--but in short articles. I have a boxcar full of books backing up (figuratively) in my Kindle.
catherine
10-31-16, 5:53pm
I don't see anything wrong with liking bullet points, she whined.
That's true. My MVP (Most Valuable Professor) in college made us turn in our assignments on a single 3 x 5 index card, which was an excellent learning experience for cutting to the chase in our writing. But what I'm talking about is the expectation that I have to be both writer and graphic designer these days.
Some people can't comprehend what they read. Unfortunately, with texting the situation is going to get worse. There are people in jobs that can barely read numbers let alone words. It is pitiful.
Powered by vBulletin® Version 4.2.5 Copyright © 2025 vBulletin Solutions Inc. All rights reserved.