To all new college kids

The BBQ Pit
1

I guess college is back in session because the whiners are coming out of the woodwork.

Being in college is not just learning what happened in Pavia in 516, or learning Green’s Theorem, or discussing Theodore Roethke.

It’s learning how to deal with shit that isn’t done the way you THINK it should be done. How to deal in the real world when Mom and Dad aren’t there to wake you up, feed you, and fight your battles for you.

What you should know now is that the time you spend complaining to chair, complaining with your fellow students, complaing to the TA, complaining to your parents is going to be much better spent STUDYING. Saying to yourself, “well, that teacher is a fucked-up asshole with fucked-up asshole rules. I don’t respect him. I’m going to rip him in teacher evaluations. But, if I want to do well in the class and learn the material, I better play along.”

Teacher’s are human. They’re inconsistent. They do ask vague questions. They infuse politics into discussions where they don’t belong. They’re not always open-minded to your new and oh so special and unique ideas. However, almost every one of them knows their subject like a son-of-a-bitch, and if you demonstrate to them that you know it too, then all the syllabus changes, grading schemes, power-tripping rules, whatever don’t make a whit of difference.

You should know too that for every teacher that you think is a fucked-up asshole because he flunked you on a quiz you missed because your roommate needed someone to go to the health center with her, there’s a kid sitting next to you who loves that teacher and was glad the whine-brigade took one on the chin. There are kids who don’t mind a disorganized teacher, a teacher who might change in midstream because someone is showing an interest in a particular area. They don’t care at all if the class is 25% tests, 75% homework or 75% tests, 25% homework or if the teacher told them ‘A’ on day 1 and changed to ‘B’ halfway through the semester because they’re doing them both with the proper attention.

Yeah, he changed the rules. Tough shit. Rules change. Study.

All that crap is just going to get in your way. You’re going to play those games where you whine with your friends about how rotten your teacher is and they’re going to agree with you and they’re going to whine back about their teachers and you’re going to agree with them.

Meanwhile, the kid sitting next to you is in the library making outlines from his history book and not worrying about all that peripheral bullshit that seems to be your focus.

I’d like to say it’s time to grow the fuck up, but you won’t. You’ll do it through 4 or 5 years of college. Then, you’ll do it in the workplace. Take comfort, you’ll always have another asshole down the hall that will share that bitch right along with you.

2

I dunno. I can appreciate that whining is counterproductive, but if one is paying thousands of dollars per semester to receive education, the least the institution can do is hire professors who are actually competent and mentally on the same planet as the rest of us.

3

So, you’re pitting:

  1. A person angry because a professor treats him like a child; and
  2. A person angry because a professor treats her like a child, who is so disorganized that it interferes with the teaching process, and who promotes postmodernism, ironically enough, as the only true path; and
  3. A person who hasn’t even been in college for 25 years?

Smoothe move, dude.

Daniel

4

The thing is. . .

The number of professors who kid think are incompent is so far out of whack with the actual number who are incompetent.

The kid who thinks Professor Smith is incompetent is usually the same kid who finds Prof. Jones, Prof. Adams and Prof. Jackson are incompetent. It usually turns out that it’s the complainer who isn’t flexible enough to accomodate a different teaching style, not the other way around.

Personally, through 4 years of college and 6 years at 2 graduate schools, I don’t recall having a single teacher who was incompetent. There were some whose style I had to do a little more work to adapt to.

5

A-fucking-men.

6

Oy. I’m going to take the other side here. I’ll start with a disclaimer. In any profession, there are indeed a handful of people who are not right for the job they are doing.

That said, if you are prepared to spend thousands of dollars on your education, then please take the time to look at the faculty of the instutition where you are planning to drop your change. Talk to current students. Look at student reviews of faculty, departments, and classes. Look at how the faculty members are regarded by their peers. If you don’t like what you find, look for a different college. You’re right, it’s your money, it’s a lot of money, you should be spending it thoughtfully. You have every right to take your business elsewhere if you feel the school did a poor job of selecting its faculty.

7

No, I’m pitting

  1. a person angry because they THINK the professor is treating him like a child.

  2. a person angry because they THINK the teacher should teach in a specific way that is easiest for that person to follow.

I’m not sure what you’re talking about in 3. I was just highlighting the thread because it had more of the whining in it.

These people are acting like they’re the first person in the world who could get what a teacher was saying. Like they’re unfairly and uniquely set upon by scheduling and stylistic differences. What they have to do is shut the fuck up and learn to deal.

8

Erp, my previous post was in reference to the OP.

9

Well I think if you spend all that time and pay all that money, you’ve bought yourself the right to complain if you’re unhappy. Why should it bother the OP? Big deal, people deal with new situations and adapt in different ways.

10

Bullshit. None of those folks were whining unnecessarily. And I disagree with you that the point of college is to learn to put up with assholes and I’m glad I never went to YOUR college.

I’ve pitted a professor or two in my day. I’ve had one that was truly incompetent. Nevertheless, I’m pretty sure no one would accuse me of focusing on ‘peripheral bullshit’ rather than, you know, studying.

11

I absolutely agree. And I complain about some professors and not about others. For example:
My math professor last semester: couldn’t teach his way out of a paper bag. I took two courses with him and made 100 in both, no thanks to him: he faced the board for 80% of his time in class, spoke ina monologue, used virtually no real-world examples, and was horrible. Several times in class I’d look around the room to see the other students (with less of a math background than me) with stunned expressions on their faces, trying desperately to follow him and having no idea what he’d been on about for the last 20 minutes. Man needs to retire.
My math professor this semester: wonderful. She’s playful, relaxed, and attentive toward students; she emphasizes the beauty and logic of math; she inspires devotion in her students; and she’s hard-core. Our assignments are difficult and entail lots of work. I love it.
My children’s literature professor: Poor lady. I’ve wondered whether she was asked to resign from her last job. She’s terribly disorganized, and she’s horribly rude toward students she doesn’t like (she likes me, so I’m safe from her rudeness). And the thing is, I really don’t think she realizes that she’s being rude. It’s a shame, since this was the single class I was most looking forward to, and now it’s become one that I just need to get through without my face permanently freezing in a wince.
My teaching reading professor: Quirky but cool. Has us do a lot with construction paper. Not the world’s toughest teacher, but has a very good grasp of theory, and I’m learning a lot from her.

I’ve been in the workforce for seven years now, and I’m returning to school. My criticisms of fellow students are a lot harsher than my criticisms of my professors. But I’ve got a right to whinge about the professors, and strangely, I don’t have to choose between whinging and studying.

Daniel

12

Lamest. Pitting. Ever.

–Cliffy

13

The “right to complain”.

First of all, that’s all it is. It’s complaining. It’s not working for change. It’s not trying to deal with the object of one’s complaint. It’s just whining. One kid’s gripe is another kid’s “opposite of gripe”. I guarantee there were some kids sitting in Oober’s class, kids who showed up 5 minutes early, ready to take their quizzes, looking at him through the glass thinking, “good”, thinking, “man, I like this teacher. He doesn’t take crap and isn’t vying for affection.”

Second of all, they paid, but they’re also willingly going there. They asked the school, “please let me in”. The school let them in, and now they’re bitching about how the school operates. It’s not like they were conscripted into University.

Lastly, my main point was: it’s just counterproductive. I’m not trying to take away anyone’s right to complain. We all have that. Some of us just choose not the exercise it.

14

Whereas this thread is…?

Daniel

15

Advice.

16

If so, you’re not the world’s best advice giver, given that you couch it in so many insults that nobody on earth is going to take it. Either you didn’t intend it as advice but rather intended it as complaining; or you’re incompetent at giving advice.

Daniel

17

But then you would have learned to put up with…

18

Since Trunk cannot give the whiners the sound physical thrashing they deserve he is forced to use the only weapon at his command, the keyboard.

19

College students so fucking ENTITLED to everything. I agree with the OP.

First of all, most of them are not paying for an education. Their parents are, and the state is, and student loans are. They haven’t earned it. The students who are paying their own way complain less. They’ve lived enough to know they aren’t entitled to have things done their way. They aren’t spoiled bratty shits, padding into class 10 minutes late in their flip flops and text messaging their buddies and eat in class and chewing with their mouth open and bitching about every thing. Second of all, paying for an education doesn’t mean you’re right about anything. The professor has been there longer than you and knows more. Accept that. It’s the first step in your education.

20

And which of those things, pray tell, were the “spoiled bratty shits” in the linked threads doing? Please be specific.

When I go to a restaurant, the chef has been there longer than I have and probably knows more about food than I do. If he gives me rotten eggplant, I’m still gonna send it back.

Daniel