Changing jobs, and the Polish university system

From Today I will be using a shorter, rougher format with less proofing of what I write - which might sound strange coming from someone whose current gainful employment is editing other people's texts. However, I once served an apprenticeship as a mechanic, and the state of my car was no measure of my skill with a spanner it was rather a case I had a better lifeplan than spending 24/7 doing exactly the same thing. looking back i have never spent a great deal of time doing any one thing in particular, being married to Ania for eleven years breaks all records for my interest span. In fact, the difference between my relationship with Ania and with other people is that eventually I want to push the borders of understanding well beyond the comfort zone of the kind of people I work with, and most are not that happy to move out of their niches, in their lifeplans work is generally something you do to earn money to pay for whatever they get up to, including bringing up their families. I am not an ogre, and I find it better for everyone if I move on.

Ania, though, was already ready for change, her feet were itching for change, and continuous change is what she has got. So much change, in fact, that she is now noticeably different from the people she works with, most of whom have been ground down by a university system that has yet to move out of the dark ages in terms of management. If anyone reading this has experience with Western universities and what goes on in them, be aware that no matter how hard life seems there, it is only a pale shadow of the problems faced by Polish universities and, I suspect, those of other former Soviet bloc countries. There are two main ways to survive teaching in Polish universities - by outright greed or by shutting down your will to innovate. Knowledge is spoonfed, books can generally be accessed by request in libraries (often with a 24 hour wait), and at the end of every semester the students have to chase their lecturers down to get a signature in their 'indeks' to prove at the end of the course that they attended the lectures. Exams? If you fail in June, you get to retake the ones you failed in September, and if you fail that you get a retake a week later, and a week later if you fail that. The exams themselves are generally oral no matter what the subject is, and passing an envelope of money to the examiner at some point prior to the exam, or by attending a paid 'exam booster course', and your chances of passing are higher.

Corruption rules, and it stinks, too.

Ania, though, does not overcharge for her services, but does introduce well thought out innovation into her teaching and course design. As a consequence she is overworked and will soon have to make a decision on how she plans to spend the rest of her working life.