By Guillame Purell –
Before my afternoon class I get a little nervous, my stomach is turning, and I don’t look forward to class. But I haven’t missed a class yet; I don’t think I could. The professor commands so much authority that they make an army drill sergeant look like Mother Goose.
The work required for the class is demanding. It’s a course with audio tapes, videos, work and textbooks, handouts, weekly exams, and occasional presentations. After class you look at your homework and clear your schedule for the weekend because you won’t have time to breath not to mention go out.
Now if you think you could rush through the homework, guess again. To this professor, the quality of the work is important. If you walk into class with everything finished, but during class it becomes obvious you didn’t retain anything from the homework, the professor will call you out on it.
This is a good professor. Pressure, pressure, pressure to squeeze the most out of students.
My evening class is a different story. To be honest, I don’t even know what the course title is anymore.
The professor began the semester making it clear to students that they “don’t give a shit” about students showing up to class – it’s not part of their grading policy. Miss a lecture and you lose out on a boring class where the discussion was mostly off topic and full of racial slurs and profanity, something you would see on the Jerry Springer show.
Who cares about course requirements? The professor makes it clear they usually hands out B’s.
So the class sits there, listening to a pointless monologue resembling something like a Chris Rock stand up that just isn’t funny. Often times the student next to me shakes her head and turns to me whispering, “This professor can’t be serious.”
That student is right. This professor is not serious about our education, our future, and our university. It’s disrespectful toward the students in the room because the professor gives the impression we’re not worth the effort to truly educate.
Instead the mentality is “Take this B, graduate and get a meaningless job.”
It’s sad considering the fact this individual has a decorated academic background.
The difference between a good and bad teacher is like night and day. A good teacher is hard on students because it forces them to work. Keep them busy to the point of exhaustion and the students will retain some material from class as well as learn something about themselves and how much they can handle.
A bad professor is a careless and lazy teacher. Bad teachers recycle the same lesson plan that they’ve been using since the 1980s and are in it for the paycheck.
Some bad professors may have the security of tenure but we students aren’t the administration and we don’t really care about labor contracts. We should be calling out professors that abuse the system.
The lazy student may be indifferent to how the professor conducts class; at that point he isn’t a student. A serious student goes to school to learn and develop character so they may provide for their family and community.
After a turbulent upbringing and poor choices early in my college years, I now understand the value of taking my education seriously. So I have high expectations of the professors on campus. Those professors that don’t have high expectations of me and my peers should be on notice – we’re listening and watching.
To the professors that push us to work and think to our breaking point, thank you.