The Two Faces of Stubbornness

The act of stubbornness is often deemed and seen as a bad habit by many people, including myself, and that's because most people have the belief that stubbornness can't produce any positive outcome, and that's why the talk of peace is often being preached and encouraged as a means to let issues slide for peace and calmness to prevail. However, I'd like to state it for the first time: that's if it hasn't been said before by someone else. That stubbornness, although often downplayed by many, can sometimes produce a good result or outcome, but before we get to that point, I'll be sharing a personal experience, so without further ado, let's get to it.

Before I share my experience, take for instance, on many occasions, a particular individual has been doing something terrible or bad to you, but because you want peace to reign, you mostly just keep quiet and let it go rather than being stubborn so that such a person will know that you're not pleased with what they're going through, so you can enjoy your life and the benefit such individual has been ripping off you. That's one way to show that stubbornness can yield good results at times, and now to my positive tale about being stubborn. In the midst of work, nothing happens to the Edupack and Emis officers, which means aside from the fact that my primary assignment in the school is to teach, I also have to help the school with documentation that involves any digital data entry, such as results, broadsheets, and school analysis, amongst many other things, to name but a few.

Now, it's worth noting that despite the fact that these extra curriculum tasks can be so demanding to the point where they mostly affect when I ought to go to class to teach students when they've me on the timetable, it still went on to intrude into my personal life and tone because on such days I would even have to move this task home so they can be completed in time, and despite doing all these, I mostly pay or am compensated for my time, effort, or even extra money I spend on data. Things went south in a particular term, whereby I couldn't conclude topics in a particular term for my students because of the extra task in the burden with me, and I, superior, the vice principal, wondered why, because she's the one who mostly sends those tasks, even in the evening when I'm home with my family.

It was then surprising when the education quality assurance officers came to inspect the school mode of teaching, the efficiency of teachers, such documentation, and many other things, and when it was time for them to inspect me, they found out I was lagging behind the scheme of work, and I admitted in truth I'm lacking behind and I'll do better, but it's due to the fact that the school has burdened me with some tasks that take up most of my time. I even went further to them that all the documentation the school will submit to them today was done by me, of which they understood, but obviously they'll want to cross-check my statement with the school leadership to know if I'm speaking the truth. However, when they told the vice principal about what I said and how I'm lagging behind in the scheme of work, rather than her defending me and affirming that I'm indeed being burdened by those tasks, she instead said that's how I used to do it and that I'm lazy. This almost led to me being sanctioned by my employee, and since then, I vow to teach the VP a lesson.

So when another section began and she kept sending me tasks to do, I only attended to them when I was free and never did any work from home again. And when it was about time for the quality assurance to come again for such an assessment, she kept on calling me to come help her with typing and gathering of school documentation, but I picked up and told her I'm in class, and when she called back multiple times, I didn't pick up her call, because I want to stay faithful to my primary assignment in the school. To cut the long story short, the quality assurance officers assessed me again alongside other teachers and saw that I stand out in everything, but the school on its own lacks behind because of their inability to provide what was requested of them. When they left and the VP was ranting, she blamed me for everything and even reported me to other colleagues, and when I had the opportunity to respond, I reminded her of what she did and said the last time, by making me look like the bad teacher just to exonerate herself. This particular stubbornness plays out well for me because I didn't allow myself to be used again and then lied upon.

On the other hand, I talked about how I displayed stubbornness and regretted it. During my undergraduate days, we were preparing for exams in my 100 level, and I was reading all the notes I had jotted down during lectures, and then one of my unserious coursemates told me not to bother about reading that long note because the exam question for a particular course had leaked and he had it, so he suggested I read only those parts and leave the entire book, but I was stubborn and didn't even take him seriously. Out of stubbornness, I even said I wouldn't read what he showed me, and I didn't, but when I got to the exam hall, that was exactly what was asked. I regretted my actions because I should have at least read those parts rather than, out of stubbornness, saying I wouldn't read those parts just to prove a point, and in the end, my stubbornness made things worse because I failed the course and had to retake it the following section.

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