Best efforts

You know, despite my best efforts and intentions, there are days when my students screw me right-royally. Today was a good example. 

The little possums have it in their mind that the faster they race through the material the more chance there is that they'll pass the end of level exam and more importantly, get their TOEFL certificate.

Little do they know that, unlike the schools they attend, the TOEFL exam actually needs to be passed (the schools apply a you-pay you-pass mentality).

And so despite my trying to help them, they went to the school management and complained. Which, you might think, doesn't present an overly disastrous situation. However, here with the importance placed on sales rather than education, the thinking is that if you piss off the students they'll go to another school and as such it's frowned upon. They are after all the paying customers - n'est pas?

Thus my punishment for trying to be helpful is a reprimand by management and a black mark by my name. Which, in a country where there are plenty of new teachers, is a huge issue as they are more than happy to fire you at a moments notice.

Needless to say my reaction is: UGH!