# I don't think I'm going to like this instructor... **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [June 5, 2009, 5:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-think-im-going-to-like-this-instructor/498783 "2009-06-05T05:18:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Hippy\_Hollow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hippy_hollow/32/4841_2.png) [@Hippy\_Hollow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hippy_Hollow)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2009, 5:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-think-im-going-to-like-this-instructor/498783/81 "2009-06-22T05:14:39Z")
Listen, as somebody who is a prof, and writes books (and earns a little from royalties), my intention, if I were to assign my own book for class (unlikely, as they don’t really square with the courses I teach at the moment) would be for students to learn from the works, not earn money off 'em. (Libraries help out there.) If you all could access the copy on reserve in the library, no problem for me. So, my suggestion is one that will require you to examine your own ethics, and see if it jibes. Make four friends. Each purchase one of the books. Scan your pages. Figure out the rest. 'Nuff said. In all fairness you should destroy those PDFs once the course is over, and you should not sell or distribute them to others. When I was in grad school and we had to buy $500 course readers, this is how we were able to pay our rent and keep the phone on. ---
**Author:** ![ashman165](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8e8cbc/32.png) [@ashman165](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ashman165)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2009, 7:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-think-im-going-to-like-this-instructor/498783/82 "2009-06-22T07:07:25Z")
> [@billfish678](#): > > Well, you can either choose to BE somewhat professional when discussing something related to your profession, or you can post stuff like you originally did that was rather unpolite and unprofessional (and not particularly insightful either). > > Sure, you have the RIGHT to do either, but don’t get bent out of shape when folks call you on it either. Bent out of shape? Over what? What someone on the internet says to me? Hardly. Moreover, the assertion that one must act the same one acts at work at all times is patently ridiculous. Unpolite? Is that anything like impolite? I didn’t claim what I said was insightful. Not that you’ve claimed as much, but what you’ve said here isn’t at all insightful; hell, it’s not even relevant to the OP. Mine was at least that. Opal, you’re confused, again. How I type here apparently isn’t how I speak when I’m teaching. For instance, it’s a math class. I’m reasonably funny. My students for the most part seem to like me quite a bit so much so that my classes are always sought out. Maybe it’s because the curricula in the classes are quite robust, or not. You’d have to ask them. Either way, it’s not really important what some particular student may think of me as it has no bearing on material taught in class. But I suppose you’re one of those people who can’t separate out parts of people’s lives: like, um, you know, between public and private. This here is part of my private life; it has no bearing on my professional life. My professional life has only a little bearing on my personal life. But even if they bore substantially on one another, it would be happenstance; the two are quite discrete ideas. Why are you incapable of seeing this, at least to me, very obvious point? ---
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2009, 8:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-think-im-going-to-like-this-instructor/498783/83 "2009-06-22T08:37:32Z")
Try calling your teacher “Gilderoy Lockhart” and see what happens. ---
**Author:** ![OpalCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8edcca/32.png) [@OpalCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OpalCat)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2009, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-think-im-going-to-like-this-instructor/498783/84 "2009-06-22T15:40:27Z")
> [@ashman165](#): > > Opal, you’re confused, again. How I type here apparently isn’t how I speak when I’m teaching. … > But I suppose you’re one of those people who can’t separate out parts of people’s lives: like, um, you know, between public and private. This here is part of my private life; it has no bearing on my professional life. My professional life has only a little bearing on my personal life. But even if they bore substantially on one another, it would be happenstance; the two are quite discrete ideas. Why are you incapable of seeing this, at least to me, very obvious point? You’re the only one who has gotten hopelessly confused in this thread. My point is only that if you’re this kind of person [notes what forum we’re in and doesn’t elaborate] then unless you are an Oscar-caliber actor in the classroom, people probably pick up on it. Unbridled arrogance is unbridled arrogance, and an arrogant teacher is annoying at best. Whether you talk like this or not, who you are is who you are, and you’re… [again notes the forum and doesn’t elaborate]…not someone I’d ever care to meet in person, let alone spend time in a classroom with. You’re also extremely tiresome and I’m done responding to your ridiculous posts, since it is obvious you’re never going to actually address the points made and are instead going to continue to puff up your chest and march around the thread like a buffoon. ---
**Author:** ![BlinkingDuck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/eada6e/32.png) [@BlinkingDuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlinkingDuck)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2009, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-think-im-going-to-like-this-instructor/498783/85 "2009-06-22T16:32:56Z")
> [@BubbaDog](#): > > Wait. You’re complaining about spending ~$100-$120 for five books for one class? > My kids engineering books cost $150 each and they’re more than happy to send daddy the bill. I’d pay that bill without blinking an eye. > > One thing you need to consider is that many JUCO/CC teachers don’t get paid very well. So instead of letting some big distribution author take home the book profit money a lot of these teachers develop their own text books using smaller publishing houses. Doing this has the added advantage of making the textbook follow the course structure. > > It may be cheaper to publish smaller thinner books than one thick book depending on who he gets to publish them. > > The multi-book is also a bonus for some students. It gives them the option to spread out their payments through out the semester. And if they decide to drop the class they have only risked part of their total book fees. > > So I think you should hold off on declaring that teacher to be an asshole. Give him the chance to prove that himself. WHoa here mister! College teachers, particularly community college teachers, are NOT ALLOWED to make money. If they try, they are greedy jerks and should be fired/complained vigorously about. If they do have their own books/material they should be given away and CERTAINLY not allowed to make any money from it whatsoever! They are only doing it to make money because CERTAINLY a CC instructor could use some other persons books other than his own! This is a main reason I no longer teach. ---
**Author:** ![BlinkingDuck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/eada6e/32.png) [@BlinkingDuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlinkingDuck)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2009, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-think-im-going-to-like-this-instructor/498783/86 "2009-06-22T16:40:21Z")
> [@GargoyleWB](#): > > This constantly yanks my chain. For a very established subject with tons of publishing history to sow from, why not help out your students and find a commonly published edition available at a reasonable price? Leave it up to your students whether to shop at the campus store, or buy used, or new through Amazon, etc. > > Here, I’ll help: > > [A kickass calculus text…](http://www.amazon.com/Calculus-Analytic-Geometry-George-Simmons/dp/0070576424/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1245441888&sr=8-1) When I taught, I picked the book I thought was best. However, the first day of class I let students know previous editions were fine and kept track of any changes found for them to use. This allowed students to pick up ‘out of date’\* editions cheaply. \*Out of date being in quotes because sometimes the differences between editions were slight. There was one time where I could find no difference at all. ---
**Author:** ![ashman165](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8e8cbc/32.png) [@ashman165](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ashman165)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2009, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-think-im-going-to-like-this-instructor/498783/87 "2009-06-22T18:44:51Z")
> [@OpalCat](#): > > You’re the only one who has gotten hopelessly confused in this thread. My point is only that if you’re this kind of person [notes what forum we’re in and doesn’t elaborate] then unless you are an Oscar-caliber actor in the classroom, people probably pick up on it. Unbridled arrogance is unbridled arrogance, and an arrogant teacher is annoying at best. Whether you talk like this or not, who you are is who you are, and you’re… [again notes the forum and doesn’t elaborate]…not someone I’d ever care to meet in person, let alone spend time in a classroom with. You’re also extremely tiresome and I’m done responding to your ridiculous posts, since it is obvious you’re never going to actually address the points made and are instead going to continue to puff up your chest and march around the thread like a buffoon. You mean those dimwitted assertions you want to pawn off as arguments? I have responded to them; that I chose to expose them for the logically fallacious claptrap they are doesn’t mean I didn’t respond. It just means I didn’t play your game the way you wanted me to. If you want better answers (read as answers that respond in the way you want them responded to), you should make an effort to ask better questions. This isn’t exactly a new concept, being somewhere around a few thousand years old and all. It’s also worth noting that you appear not to understand the definition of arrogance. If I, in my classroom we’ll say, act like I’m the one guy in there who knows what he’s talking about, is it arrogance? Or is it my several Ph.D.'s in my field? It’s only arrogant to claim something bombastically, let’s say all I do in class is sit there saying “I have a Ph.D., trust me. I have a Ph.D., I can’t be wrong!” as my evidence, then you might have a point. Since I don’t sit in class claiming something to which I’m not entitled, that part of the definition can’t _possibly under any bastardization_ of the word apply. Again, if this is an example of your scholarship, it’s good that you aren’t in one of my class. You simply must do better. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-think-im-going-to-like-this-instructor/498783.md?page=4)