# It's not the Professor's fault that you "haven't learned" (mild) **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [April 26, 2005, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-not-the-professors-fault-that-you-havent-learned-mild/301185 "2005-04-26T16:48:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Mollie\_Magill](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mollie_magill/32/20882_2.png) [@Mollie\_Magill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mollie_Magill)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2005, 12:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-not-the-professors-fault-that-you-havent-learned-mild/301185/21 "2005-04-28T12:41:17Z")
> [@mhendo](#): > > 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. No doubt, but what of the instructors who clearly have knowledge of the language, but not of articulation. Anyhow, my point (there was one in there) was that it would not have been not the instructor’s fault had I failed the class (I got a B). Because I had a good lab class, a well written text book, and knew how to study on my own, I was able to pass the class - wierd german/cajun tangents into karate punches not withstanding. A side point was that the good instructors stay with you. That’s how I remember Dr. Danby’s name after fifteen years. The bad instructors are left behind. ---
**Author:** ![smiling\_bandit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@smiling\_bandit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smiling_bandit)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2005, 1:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-not-the-professors-fault-that-you-havent-learned-mild/301185/22 "2005-04-28T13:04:49Z")
> [@](#): > > 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. I haven’t had the worst variety, but I did have a preCal teacher who ket goofing up his equations. He knew what he doing, but he had no good way of showing us. By the end of that semester, I’d actually fallen behind where I was in high school PreCal and decided that computer science was definitely not the way I wanted to go; in fact, I swore off anything which might require further interaction with the math faculty. ---
**Author:** ![vivalostwages](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/d07c76/32.png) [@vivalostwages](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vivalostwages)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2005, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-not-the-professors-fault-that-you-havent-learned-mild/301185/23 "2005-04-28T21:49:16Z")
> [@Manatee](#): > > Oh, and to touch on the OP: > > 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?) I tried to reply to this post this morning but it got eaten. Speaking of whines…A fellow instructor told me of yet another student who only shows up periodically, gets a D average on anything that he bothers to turn in, then turns up now, in the 15th week of an 18-week semester, to ask if there’s any way he can pass the class. :rolleyes: The instructor told him to take the class again in the fall but to get serious about it this time. Of course, that’s what students should do in the first place instead of wasting time and money. \*The bully in question (in that other thread) was put on notice and told not to pester me or my dept. with any more groundless bullshit complaints and accusations, and was told that he has to adhere to the policies in the syllabus, and that there is no further appeal on this issue. (We’re just so “mean” to students, aren’t we?) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-not-the-professors-fault-that-you-havent-learned-mild/301185.md?page=1)