I’ve had 2 run ins with professors in my collegiate career. This is not to say that I haven’t had disagreements, differences of opinions, or annoyances with lower than expected grades. That happens. What should never happen are the events surrounding the two run ins I have had.
Run-In #1
Without naming the professor, my Church History professor at SNU and I had a few very major differences. He believed in heavy memorization of a list of 300 facts/dates/people. I don’t think I would have minded this assignment (which was actually a Mid-Term test, that every student was required to pass in order to pass the class.) but for 2 reasons. First, rote memorization has proven itself to be a terrible way of learning with retention being basically nil over any amount of time. Secondly, my learning styles, strengths, study practices etc are all geared for anything BUT memorization of a list. I dropped the class once because I could not pass this test. I took it again the next year. The same situation began to haunt me. I took the test, bombed it. I went to “conference” with the professor. He enlightened me that I was going to retake this test until I passed it. I asked why he was so hell-bent on this- an unfair test, with unfair implications for the class. He asked me this: “How will you ever know where people from your church live and how will you get ahold of them if you don’t know where they live?” I yelled at him “I’ll look in the freaking Church Directory!!” I then slammed his door shut, and took a lap around campus to cool down before I bloodied this guy’s face. I went back and retook the test 3 times before I passed it.
Run In #2
Here at MSU email is the only method of communication for most of the prof/student interaction. With the walk across campus possibly taking 40 minutes, people don’t have time to wait around after class. In my Math Teaching Methods class, my classmates (as well as myself) are routinely confused about unclear assignment expectations, due dates, and overall structure of the class. We sit in this class once a week, for 3 hours. Recently the professor announced he would finally be grading the papers that we had all been turning in since the onset of the semester. We have various other things to do besides reading and reflection papers, such as posting on a discussion forum about something assigned to us that week. I have this class on Monday. On Thursday, the day the posting is due for the forum, there was no forum available, or subject material to prepare for on our class website. This class has a 13 page syllabus stating very precisely how everything will happen, yet somehow everything is always confused in some fashion. I emailed the professor with caution as earlier in the semester I emailed him questions and never received a response. I was waiting for a reply Sunday night telling us what to post about. That didn’t even happen. No response whatsoever. Monday comes around, my graded papers come back. Worst grades I’ve received on papers since the year 1999. I was pissed. I waited until after class, but then let him know that he didn’t need to explain paragraph structure to me. I also asked why he is unreachable. His response: “I would think that if you asked any professor who is teaching 2 classes and engaged in research, being prudently responsive is nearly impossible” I say: I emailed you Thursday afternoon. He started giving me some line about how in class he provides all we should need to know. I said, “so we have 1 chance a week to make sure we get everything figured out for the following week, when your instructions are usually rushed and unclear?” He responded, “I’ll try to do better.”
Run-In #1
Without naming the professor, my Church History professor at SNU and I had a few very major differences. He believed in heavy memorization of a list of 300 facts/dates/people. I don’t think I would have minded this assignment (which was actually a Mid-Term test, that every student was required to pass in order to pass the class.) but for 2 reasons. First, rote memorization has proven itself to be a terrible way of learning with retention being basically nil over any amount of time. Secondly, my learning styles, strengths, study practices etc are all geared for anything BUT memorization of a list. I dropped the class once because I could not pass this test. I took it again the next year. The same situation began to haunt me. I took the test, bombed it. I went to “conference” with the professor. He enlightened me that I was going to retake this test until I passed it. I asked why he was so hell-bent on this- an unfair test, with unfair implications for the class. He asked me this: “How will you ever know where people from your church live and how will you get ahold of them if you don’t know where they live?” I yelled at him “I’ll look in the freaking Church Directory!!” I then slammed his door shut, and took a lap around campus to cool down before I bloodied this guy’s face. I went back and retook the test 3 times before I passed it.
Run In #2
Here at MSU email is the only method of communication for most of the prof/student interaction. With the walk across campus possibly taking 40 minutes, people don’t have time to wait around after class. In my Math Teaching Methods class, my classmates (as well as myself) are routinely confused about unclear assignment expectations, due dates, and overall structure of the class. We sit in this class once a week, for 3 hours. Recently the professor announced he would finally be grading the papers that we had all been turning in since the onset of the semester. We have various other things to do besides reading and reflection papers, such as posting on a discussion forum about something assigned to us that week. I have this class on Monday. On Thursday, the day the posting is due for the forum, there was no forum available, or subject material to prepare for on our class website. This class has a 13 page syllabus stating very precisely how everything will happen, yet somehow everything is always confused in some fashion. I emailed the professor with caution as earlier in the semester I emailed him questions and never received a response. I was waiting for a reply Sunday night telling us what to post about. That didn’t even happen. No response whatsoever. Monday comes around, my graded papers come back. Worst grades I’ve received on papers since the year 1999. I was pissed. I waited until after class, but then let him know that he didn’t need to explain paragraph structure to me. I also asked why he is unreachable. His response: “I would think that if you asked any professor who is teaching 2 classes and engaged in research, being prudently responsive is nearly impossible” I say: I emailed you Thursday afternoon. He started giving me some line about how in class he provides all we should need to know. I said, “so we have 1 chance a week to make sure we get everything figured out for the following week, when your instructions are usually rushed and unclear?” He responded, “I’ll try to do better.”
3 comments:
I remember the first incident(s). That prof's parents attend our church here from time to time...rich enough to own a condo here!
If he really said what more do you expect from someone teaching two courses and conducting research. You should have responded a lot more. Somehow a number of academics with PhD forget how to multi-task.
I remember the 1st run in, I'll have to admit...I laughed multiple times during that period of your life. It was just so funny!
Onto the 2nd run in, what a douche bag (excuse my wording) two classes and research! I am surprised the world has not stopped for him. What a nerdy loser!
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