Have you ever had a professor that, no matter what the circumstance,
would not cut any slack in any of his classes? Have you ever been
forced to drop a class just because no matter how hard you tried to
study, it always seems that you don't get the grade that you expected
on the exam? I have had such a class this semester.
In this class, my professor (whose name is being left out for obvious
reasons) only gives three exams all year. Of the two exams he
has given so far, the class average is somewhere around 54.
To add
injury to insult, the professor has arrived at the conclusion that
there will be no curve for our final grade. So, you are probably
thinking, "Well, this is just a very lazy class that doesn't study
enough for his test." But I can assure you, that is not the case.
I have found out the only reason I have this professor is because he
was brought out of retirement to teach this class since there weren't
enough teachers for this particular course. This professor is old,
callused, and unwilling to change his teaching style in order for the
entire class to understand what he is saying. Every day during class
this professor continues to insult the very intelligence of the
students who are in his class. He concludes that if you cannot
understand what he is talking about during his lectures that you
should drop the course.
Personally, I have been studying over nine hours a week just for this
class. Although I don't study nearly as much for all of my other
classes, I have an A in all of them. I think something is wrong when
the majority of your class is failing. After a certain point, the
student cannot be held completely liable for having a bad grade!
So,
should we ,as students, put up with having to settle for a grade in a
class when we all know that we deserve better? While I do have four
other professors who teach in a very effective manner, I feel the
grades of the students at Radford University should not be at the
mercy of a professor who is not getting the job done.
What do you think? Leave your feedback below.
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Comments:
You can only fight so much to learn something. As you said, we are paying for our education...so give it to me. Learning shouldn't have to be a battle!
Name:Chris Flor Major: Information Systems and Mathematics Comments:
While I know where this article is coming from, do we as students deserve anything? Is it up to the professors to accomodate us? Or is our real task as students to adapt to the widely varying expectations we are asked to meet. Yes, it seems some professors may be "harder" than others, but I am paying out-of-state tuition to learn something. Some of the most valuable learning experiences I have had have not been the ones where I was the most successful. It is your choice ultimately, but you can choose to fight or you can choose to give up. Personally, I choose to fight now so I will be stronger later.
Comments:
I am taking geography 100 and it is almost the same way. The professor is awful. Almost the entire class is failing. The first test had to be retaken by everyone because only 2 people passed it. Then she gave a retake and the average was still an f. I am a senior with almost a 3.0 gpa.. i should not have a 47 average in this course. The professor will not even curve until the end of the semester so you don't know if you might pass or if you should drop it. I can not wait to evaluate this professor.
Name: Scott Cloud Comments:
Well, this brings up a really touchy issue- tenure. Profs should be held accountable. It they are preforming badly, then they have no place trying to educate in the classroom. But, conversly profs serve another fuction than purely imbarking knowledge. They are the critical element keeping society in check. We need a group in society decidated to the critical discovery and analysis of information. Tenure is needed for this to happen. Tenure insures that Profs can't be fired because they don't adhere to the dominant theology or ideology of the time. This is a great check/balance in the academy. It insures that all voices be heard and the truth can have a chance to be heard and debated. But, putting all that theoritical good intention aside, I think we MUST find a medium that would recognize that some profs- even though really needed for their intelletual imput- really suck as teachers.
Name: rachel Comments:
good point. maybe this teacher will read this and think about changing his old fashion ways. after all, you are paying for a quality education. it doesn't sound like you are getting your money's worth.
Name: PeeR Comments:
Couldn't agree with you more, PJ. Damned fine article. How true...how true.
