I know your mind is already in California, where you’ve apparently gotten into some fashion school (which you will probably fail out of in one semester if what I’ve seen is any indication), and it’s the end of the semester and pretty much nobody has any patience anymore.
All semester, you couldn’t be bothered to come to class more than 50% of the time – and that’s a very generous estimate. And now, two days before your shirt is due, you’re whining about how you “haven’t learned anything”, and you’re going to complain to the school because Professor G is a bad teacher and should be fired even though she’s tenured.
It’s a SEWING class. You’re not going to learn how to sew if you stay at home most of the time sleeping off a hangover. You party too much, and it’s a shame because I think you really could do something in the fashion industry. It’s not that you’re not smart, you’re just at that time in your life when you’re thinking with your gonads.
Now if you don’t like Professor G because she doesn’t take any shit and doesn’t coddle you, fine. But I have a BIG problem with people who go around trying to get others fired when they don’t deserve it. Trying to mess with someone’s livelihood just because you’ve got an attitude is … well, it’s vile. Sure, you won’t succeed, because she’s tenured and her serious students sing her praises. It’s just the idea that you’d even attempt it that chaps my ass.
And really … this isn’t about how you haven’t learned anything. The only reason you’re in this class is because it’s a requirement for your major. There are only two people there who actually WANT to be, and neither of us are fashion majors.
This is about how you’re pissed because you know on Thursday your shirt isn’t going to be done, and you’re going to end up with a shitty grade for the class. If you want to piss away your college education, that’s fine, but at least be woman enough to admit that the only reason you still can’t sew is because you were too lazy to come to class.
Don’t worry about the professor. All she needs to do is whip out her roll book and prove SlackerGirl didn’t attend class on a regular basis and she’s covered.
I had an college Algebra course last quarter. We spent half of each class listening to students whine about how they hadn’t learned anything - and the fact that they were failing test proved it.
Never mind there were a bunch of us who weren’t failing tests…so obviously “someone” was learning something.
Same thing in Econ this quarter. If they fail, it must be the fault of the prof (to give them credit, the Econ prof is the worst excuse I’ve ever seen for a professor, but the book is well written, and those of us passing the course are doing it by READING THE BOOK).
I agree with you for pure lecture classes and the like, but any class where participation is a major component (i.e., science labs, writing classes, most art classes) and your absense affects others, then I think taking attendance is necessary.
I’m in engineering. While it may very well be the student’s own fault in the OP, I can tell you its pretty unbelievable the sort of people they put at the front of the classroom under the guise of being a “teacher” sometimes.
Necessary in the sense of the students are too irresponsible to attend classes without the prof treating them like kindergartners? Taking attendance in college should never be necessary. Students should go to class.
What’s finished looks pretty damn good. Only one of us in the entire class has the whole shirt finished. The only reason mine isn’t finished is because we had to make a gazillion alterations to my pattern.
Which is ok, because now I know how to alter a pattern
Tsk, tsk, mhendo…Haven’t you realized yet that taking attendance in college is just an abhorrent concept even though:
we’re generally required to take it or risk being non-compliant and being told to do it or else;
some colleges depend on state $ and much of that has to do with attendance;
college isn’t a free-for-all where students can just show up whenever they feel like dropping in;
not attending means missing all sorts of things;
even distance ed. students have to “attend” their virtual classes;
students who have no intention of attending are really wasting our time–and theirs–when their seat could have gone to someone who gives a crap; and
Everyone who pisses and moans about attendance should take their gripes to the entities, committees, powers-that-be, state agencies, trustees, academic senates, and other collectives who make the rules, instead of complaining about professors who are only doing exactly what they were fucking hired to do.
…Never mind. This is the very last post I’ll ever make on this issue.
And back to the OP: this student has absolutely no grounds for a grievance.
Idiot.
I was thinking particularly of writing classes (I have a good friend who teaches them), where peer review and discussion is a necessary component of the class. If you’re not there (or, alternatively, never come prepared), then the other students are hearing one fewer critique and getting one fewer viewpoint on the discussion. The same would apply in any class where discussion or collaborative effort is involved. I agree that it isn’t the school’s job to babysit students, but in classes like these your presence or absence would have a real effect on how much other students get out of the class, and it is not unreasonable for attendance to factor into your grade. Actual participation would be a better indicator, obviously, but that’s a lot more difficult to measure objectively for a teacher.
Amen to that. I’ve signed up for (and quickly dropped) classes where the professor came in and proceeded to give a speech stating that he didn’t have the time for this class, didn’t want to be teaching at all, and that the only reason he was at the university was to do research, so he expected us to stay away from his office. I’ve also had a professor who had office hours but refused to talk to students. She also refused to take questions before, during, or after class, and even informed one student (who had a very valid question) that he was stupid.
Of course, I’ve also encountered students just like the one in the OP.
Have you taken PHY 201, yet? My instuctor mumbled in some sort of german/cajun accent. Thank gods for labs and a well written textbook, becuase I had no clue what the man was saying.
That was contrasted with my instructor for Calculas 1, 2,3 and Diffy Qs. Jeep’s Phoenix, if you can get a math class taught by Dr. Danby (if he’s still at State), take it pronto. That man is a very good teacher.
I’ve already taken physics, but I think I had that professor. Could you read anything he wrote on the board? Most of this guy’s letters looked like numbers.
Dr. Danby is still there, but I never had him for anything. I had grad students for Calculus I and III, and professors for Calculus II and Diff. Eq. (Dr. Faulkner and Dr. Tran).
This is a problem in some departments in my university, especially with grad student TAs. The undergrad newspaper had an opinion piece a while back in which the author complained bitterly that the English of some of the TAs in science and engineering subjects was so bad that it was impossible to understand them.
I’m torn on this issue. On the one hand, i feel for the TAs themselves, because much of their own work doesn’t require a strong proficiency in English, and they can obviously do it well enough to fulfill the requirements of their degree. Also, one of the attractive things about universities (for me, anyway) is that they are places where smart people from all over the world gather to exchange ideas.
On the other hand, though, undergrads have the right to expect that their teachers be able to teach in clear, comprehensible English. The undergrads here (or, more precisely, their parents) pay shitloads of money to attend this place, and if grad students’ English is not good enough, then the university has an obligation to find teachers whose language skills are appropriate.
Thanks! I wanted to jump in on this topic in your derailed “bully” thread, but it came right during finals and wrapping up the quarter; by that time, mhendo had pretty much already said what I wanted to say (and much better, to boot). Your post above is a pretty good expression of my sentiments re: attendence, too.
I’m always blown away by how common the spoiled brat’s sentiment is. My students who do the least amount of reading and attend the fewest classes often seem to be the ones complaining the loudest about how I didn’t teach them anything. They seem to think that if the enroll in the class that knowledge will be magically imparted to them.
When I press them about their reading habits, or mention that I haven’t seem them in class for a couple of weeks, they inevitably tell me how busy they’ve been at work. I understand that work’s a necessity for virtually all of my students, but if you’re not making the effort to learn anything, what’s the point of even bothering with school in the first place?
(Um, no, I haven’t been dealing with a whole bunch of “I didn’t do the work and now I’m failing your class; can I do some extra credit?” whines lately, why do you ask?)
