When Continuing Ed Doesn't Suck

As is true for many professions I have to earn continuing ed hours in order to keep my cosmetology license. When I lived in North Carolina, I could either go to some approved individual classes or attend a large hair show where a variety of classes we offered along with trend classes and shows and displays. We could earn all our hours at a show in a single weekend, but not all the classes offered at a show were qualified for state board hours.

I was warned that when I moved to South Carolina that what I was used to for earning those all important hours would not be near the same. How true that was.

In South Carolina, State Board requires 6 hours a year for keeping your professional license in my field. Classes are offered throughout the year so that we hairdressers can earn hours. They are always one day events, at least in my experience. The first two years lived up to billing.

I personally do not like my time wasted. If I have to sit in a class for six hours I would really like to walk way with something besides a bad mood and a lingering headache. At the first year, I felt that we were being patronized as the presenter figured she was so gifted and that it was an honor for us to be basking in her presence. Now granted the lady knows her craft, at least in doing hair, it was in presentation skills that she had no talent. However she didn't have a clue. The planned curriculum barely made it to the halfway point by the end of the day.

The second year, new location, same presenter. A new snag to suffer through. Too many people stuffed into a too small room. The presenter couldn't stay on the topic of hair longer then about 10 minutes before she is running down a rabbit trail of some personal little snippet of her life. I had wised up and snuck in a paper back to read. After lunch, they posted, and I am not making this up, shushers to keep us all quiet. The moment a feed back question was asked, naturally people started discussing amongst themselves, and then the shushers would start. They also had made it clear that no "outside" reading was allowed, like my book. We were supposed to pay attention. I felt like we were being treated like third graders. I still read whenever I was sure the shushers weren't looking. The planned curriculum maintained its not quite to halfway status like the previous year.

After that class, a couple of us decided that no more, we had to find another presenter to get our ed. hours. And thankfully we did, in the form of one Mary Rock. Mrs. Rock did such a good job of staying on target, giving clear concise explanations, used power point presentations, and we even managed a bit of hands on time with volunteer models. My friend Ted and I were thrilled and vowed to return this year.

This year was even better. Mary had brought models from Greenville Tech where she teaches and did hair cuts and color on both, she had great power point presentations, and also showed us several websites that offered tutorials, videos and other tools. She got through the entire agenda on time, and her two young models got to go home with some cool new looks.

We had a few ladies there that were there only to get in their time. They openly flipped through a magazine or talked a bit amongst themselves now and then. Our presenter didn't mind. She was there to teach us who were interested, and to allow others just to get in their time if that is what they chose. I still believe that everyone in the room went home with something new that they hadn't thought of before.

Guess where who's class I'm going to next year? Thanks Mary, you Rock!