Reasons To Go 0.6 (Part Nine)

All This Marking Is Barking

'So, here we are again,' she said.  'Barking time.'
'I thought it was Christmas-time,' he said: obviously, momentarily, off-guard.  (He was dreaming, hoping, that the grass might be greener on the other side.  He knew, deep down, that it wouldn't be long before they put him out to graze.)
'May be for you.  But for me it's just barking.  From now until the new semester.  Barking, barking, barking: until - and then again, when - the Level Six dissertations are submitted on the sixth of January.  This current load of assessments must be completed before that next batch of assignments come in, you see.'
'So, what's your problem?'
'Problem?'
'You've obviously got a problem.'
'The problem is all this barking.  I get the feeling I spend more time barking than the students spend writing the damned essays.  I'm getting a sore throat, you know.'
'But what are you after?  Some special kind of dispensation?'
'Just parity,' she said.  'Parity when it comes to barking.'
'But you all have to bark,' he opined, whinnied and whined.
'Yes, but my barking is more labour-intensive than those who teach on practical modules.  You know, the others, they tend to co-teach 30-credit modules and the barking is not only timetabled into the academic year, it's shared.  I teach alone, on 15-credit modules, and have to bark in my own time.  It's starting to feel like a dog's life.  I'm working like a dog.  In fact, I've gone to the dogs.  A real dog's dinner.'
'It's you that's barking, just you,' he replied.
'Exactly.  I concur.  I just wish that I didn't have to bark so much.  It really seems unfair.'