Um, fuck you. Who the hell are you to judge my attitude based on my attendance? I am putting myself through college, which means I have to work, which means some days I don’t make it to class. But because you, anencephalytic pusbag that you are, have seen “too many” of me over the years to even give a flying fuck, you’re going to “automatically assume” something that you don’t know jackshit about.
Here’s a clue, moron: putting food on the table and a roof over my head ranks slightly higher on my priority list than perfect attendance. So piss off.
John, don’t bother with this waste of pixels. He/She/It lost my respect with some weak ass flame directed at me a few days ago. IIRC, the gist was that “no one here likes you Homer go away.” Oooh, I’m gonna cry.
Stofsky, pay attention to the post. I was sitting alone. Am I insane? Maybe. But I sure don’t talk to myself, now do I? (The answer is no.)
Seen too many of me? Damn. Nice rabid generalization with no basis.
I don’t consider it ‘luck,’ at least, not good luck, to have a professor that will pick out a student to harass. I consider that petty and unprofessional. Besides, you better treat your fucking students like gold. They had to be there in from Kindergarten until they were 16. But guess what? Now they are there because they are PAYING to be there. And I’m NOT going to PAY to be singled out and picked on, and very likely get a bad grade for no more reason than the dumb bitch didn’t like me.
Stofsky, I’m gonna say this again, and it’s the last time. Back off, take a fucking chill pill, lurk awhile, and learn how this place works. This is just advice, and I hope you take it.
I had an American history professor a few semesters back who was teaching the class many erroneous facts. Students would call him on them and he would just insult them. This happened many times. When it came time for us to do our reviews of him at the end of the semester, before he left the room he told us all to go ahead and “let it fly. I have tenure–it won’t matter anyway!”
But since I still have a palm full of troll food from the Petting Zoo vending machine:
You are paying for an education, not a grade. Grades are purchased with an envelope full of small bills, since graduate assistants or teaching assistants rarely see any cash at all. Attending class and pretending to be interested greatly reduces the amount of money you have to spend for the A or B you think you deserve because you pay tuition. Also remember, those lazy tenured professors have research to do and books to publish, so if they don’t have to waste time with your grade appeal because you only showed up the first day and didn’t think you deserved an F(honestly, this happened), they’re more likely to pass you on to someone else.
Believe it or not, your professors usually have an interest in your learning. If your life gets in the way of that, sorry. I’ve made it through 2 degrees and almost a third with a wife and a daughter, and rather than whining that I have a job, I have worked harder to make up for it. I have in my class this semester a Marine Corps Colonel who works full-time for the ROTC and still makes class–and turns in some of the best work I’ve seen.
Put down the keg tap and work. College isn’t, despite popular belief, party time.
Perhaps this should have read “shows up irregularly without excuse or apology.” Amulet, and others, I fully understand and appreciate that some students are struggling to balance multiple roles. And I’d expect them to me at the beginning of the term and tell me “I’m sorry, I do care, but I can foresee that I’ve got some conflicts and will have to miss class at times. I’ll try to let you know via e-mail when this is going to happen, and I’ll do my best to get notes from a classmate.” Heck I’d make myself available to meet outside of class for someone like that.
But a student who misses all the time without telling me why? Or comes to me at the end of term with an attitude about how I need to cut him slack because of retroactive problems I knew nothing about? That’s different.
I suspect (Amulet) you’re referring to yourself as the first type of student, and stofksy is referring to the latter.
Stofsky, dear, do you realize it looks just a little bit incongruous for a 41-post poster to be calling a 1485-post poster a troll. Our charming moderators are on the ball enough not to let an actual troll survive that long.
You, on the other hand, would do well to cool your jets.
I’ve got a doozy of a story involving a Math professor from a few semesters back. I’ll call him Dr. Shafter, because he shafted a ton of students and it’s also close to his real name (Schaeffer).
Dr. Shafter took over a class after midterms because the first professor had some personal problems (warning bells should be going off here). Everyone’s grade on the midterm had been good. After Dr. Shafter took over the class, grades plummeted to C’s and D’s. I personally went from being an A student to a D student. Not because I didn’t understand the material . . . I understood IN SPITE OF his classroom lectures, which were terrible . . . but because he decided I was a D student and that was the grade I would receive NO MATTER WHAT I DID on the homework.
It got to the point where I’d turn in a paper and it would come back marked up with a ton of red ink. In the next paper I’d do EVERYTHING he told me to do on the last paper, correct everything he’d marked, and I’d STILL get a D and he’s mark a bunch of new stuff HE HADN’T MARKED ON THE FIRST PAPER! I’d correct that and he’d hit me for more on the next, etc. . . this was happening to every student in the class, except those that were his pets. They could do no wrong.
People started dropping the class left and right. Those of us who stayed tried to reason with Dr. Shafter, only to be given lectures on how “math isn’t for everyone” and “there’s no shame in going into another field because you can’t hack it.” Finally everyone got upset to the point where they reported him to the Dean. Big mistake.
Next class period, Dr. Shafter came in and went into a SCREAMING fit, during which a) he threw his books against the wall, b) threw someone’s TI-82 graphing calculator against the wall and broke it, and c) threw his water bottle against the wall, splashing many of the students. Finally he said something to the effect of “if you don’t like the way I’m teaching this class, you can take your midterm grade and leave.”
That’s reading pretty far into Homer’s post. And also, unless he refers to his high-school teachers as “professors”, im pretty sure this is college he’s referring to. Bleahnyway, carry on.
The problem with some teachers, like Stofsky, is that they think they’re somehow above the level of the regular person.
You are not. You are a whore just like everyone else. You prostitute your knowledge for money. It is your job to treat and mark students fairly whether or not you think they’re serious about your class. It is NOT your job to judge who is a “serious” student.
That’s right, most students go to school to get a little piece of paper so they can make your money. It is not up to you to judge these motives. If a student can do the homework and understand the material without attending class then the only reason to fail him is to boost your own ego.
The only thing worse than a whore is a whore you takes your money and doesn’t put out.
Hastur, your teacher was right and you were wrong. The internet is NOT a particularly useful research tool at present for academic/argument purposes, becuase far too much of the info can’t be verified. Check out the numerous errors posted to this sight for proof.
Goose–gee, why wouldn’t everyone just LOVE you?
I tend to agree with Cranky–students who skip without even a call (I require that they call me just as they would call an employer) far too often expect that I will fill them in on everything covered. You want to know the truth? Lots of students don’t care about school or the particular class or what have you. As teachers, we do sometimes decide not to spend as much time on such students. We can be in error about it sometimes, just as students can be in error about instructors.
A huge irritant with many teachers is non-attendance. Too many students want a grade without having to put in the effort of learning. Please note also that I have had students older than traditional age who work full-time (sometimes more), who are raising kids (sometimes as a single parent), who carry a full w\course load, and who still make it to class. That tends to make excuses like (and I’ve heard this one) “I was too drunk to come to class” just a tad annoying.
Anyway, yep lots of profs are extremely unprofessional and shouldn’t be profs. But lots of students don’t do their jobs, either. Being a full-time student is a full-time job.
Um, wait a minute. Except for the seminars I took, none of my profs EVER cared if you showed up or not. You didn’t show up, you went and got notes from someone else, or you read the book. As long as you showed up for the tests, who cares. Hell, I went through most of my senior year that way because I was so fucked up.
For a ten-person seminar, I can see telling the professor you won’t be there. No one ever did in my seminars, but your grade was 33% participation, so they screwed themselves. But even in my normal classes, which were about 30 or so…no one EVER told the prof they would be gone. I was out a few times because I was sick, and out a few times because I was depressed, and couldn’t face it. All I ever did was ask the prof the next class if there had been a handout.
Oh, trust me, the class is WAAAY dropped. I also was talking to the president of my fraternity about it (we’re good friends) and he got much pissed. One thing you don’t do is piss off Mark. Please, no one think I came whining to Mark about it (ooh, Mark, you have to help me!) we were talking about shit like that and I told him about it and he got pissed. He’s trying to get me to go talk to the dean about it, but I don’t think it’s that big of a deal, she was just out of line.
Falc, as for attendance, I don’t know. UMKC only has about 13000 students, and class sizes are usually 30 or so, unless it’s a lecture, then it’s about 100, so I don’t know what’s up with half of them having strict attendance policies. Heck, even in the ones that do have the policies, if you have even a half assed excuse, they won’t count it.
Well, Mods, if ya want to, close this, since I’ve decided to drop, so I guess the point is moot.