(Read comments) - (Post a new comment)

	waltraute 2008-04-30 08:14 pm UTC (link)
	While students can be obnoxious little shits, you shouldn't be in the professoriate unless you're both interested in and able to redirect their own arguments against them to illustrate points and get a lively discussion going, instead of getting butthurt when they're obstinate about things which challenge their worldviews. (Reply to this)(Thread)

	rowanberries 2008-04-30 08:16 pm UTC (link)
	Exactly! Hell, most teachers get excited when students argue - you can practically see them thinking 'OMG! They were listening?!' (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	waltraute 2008-04-30 08:19 pm UTC (link)
	you can practically see them thinking 'OMG! They were listening?!' Truerfax have never been spoken--argument means that people have opinions! (Reply to this)(Parent)

	bemysty 2008-04-30 09:55 pm UTC (link)
	'OMG! They were listening?!' Have this every week currently, in three separate classes. It's actually kinda sad and annoying to be one of three or four people in 40+ people classes to actually participate in discussion... or even just do the assigned reading. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	mary_mac 2008-04-30 11:24 pm UTC (link)
	Just remember that your tutor notices, appreciates, and if they're a TA, gives you bordering-on-gushing feedback to the course coordinator. has been both that student and that TA (Reply to this)(Parent)

	lemone 2008-04-30 11:39 pm UTC (link)
	Or worse yet, one of three or four people that care enough to have a discussion, and have the others bitching at you because you're being boring and it's not even going to be on the test anyway so what does it matter? (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	bemysty 2008-05-01 08:20 am UTC (link)
	At least that doesn't happen... all of these courses can be taken ungraded - you just do a presentation or an essay and get a blanket pass, with no grades attached. I could take exams in all three, but I only need a graded pass in two. But I can't understand how ANYONE could not be interested in Nietzsche's criticism of religion D: (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	lemone 2008-05-01 07:25 pm UTC (link)
	I can't understand how anyone could be uninterested in the Canterbury Tales! I mean come on, it's all sex and farts! Who doesn't love sex and fart jokes? (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	sparkysrevenge 2008-05-02 09:51 am UTC (link)
	Tighty-pants scholars who think there is underlying meaning to sex and fart jokes, that's who! (Reply to this)(Parent)

chibikaijuu
2008-05-01 09:21 pm UTC (link)

Oh God, that is so damn awkward. Especially when you already know the other people who tend to be involved in the discussions (this is more of a high school experience for me - English class, turns out a bunch of your friends are in it, you all sit together, and suddenly you end up sort of running the class because no one else will offer an opinion without being basically shoved by the teacher. And they all hate you for it). I also have a problem in my current English class, not so much that no one else will speak up, because they do, and we've had some good discussions, but because a) it's a composition class and b) our texts are popular science books, on topics which I know something about and neither (most of) the rest of the class nor the professor knows much. Sometimes I have to literally clamp my hands over my mouth to stop myself from pissing people off by picking apart everything that scientifically wrong with an argument.

(Reply to this)(Parent)

	blue_penguin 2008-05-01 05:11 am UTC (link)
	Yeah, I was in an education class last year that basically ended up as a one-on-one debate/discussion between me and the professor because no one else in the class seemed to give a damn. I enjoyed the discussions, but I felt weird being the only one participating. (Reply to this)(Parent)

magic_lilybean
2008-05-03 04:12 pm UTC (link)

Ha ha, I'm one of those students that sits there and sits there... till about the third class in when I just can't keep my mouth shut anymore. **iz shy in class**

I'm taking classes online through a local college now and only just now emailed the instructor about an article I'd read. (The semester ends in two weeks!) **shifty-eyed** It's going to take three weeks AFTER the class is over to ask him the questions I have about applying the class to the real world. It's harder to speak up in an online class because more than likely the communication is just you and the professor directly, with no interaction from the rest of the class.

(Reply to this)(Parent)

	mistressrenet 2008-05-04 02:22 am UTC (link)
	One of my professors got all but obsessed with the guy who argued with her most. ...not that that was particularly healthy, either. (Reply to this)(Parent)

cmikhailovic
2008-04-30 10:19 pm UTC (link)

Seriously. There are few things more fuckwitted than a spoiled, ignorant, over-privileged 19-year-old, and getting stuck with a roomful of that sort entitles you to mad sympathy from everyone else. But dude, the usual way to deal with that shit is a) buck up your pedagogy, b) hone your snark, c) turn to drink, and d) count the days till the end of the semester, and hope your next group won't be so full of asshats. If you're a professor -- especially one at a prestigious university -- entitled little shitheads will ALWAYS be a fact of life, and you'd better learn to deal with it in some way other than *suing*.

/unfunny

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	jerel 2008-05-01 01:34 am UTC (link)
	so much trueness in this post. The easiest solution I found was show them where the comma goes, teach them how to research, and how to structure an argument. I didn't worry about trying to change their minds on how the world works; I was just an adjunct, so I figured a real professor could give them a reality check later and they might actually listen. (Reply to this)(Parent)

hristaesir
2008-05-01 01:57 am UTC (link)

I went to undergrad with a slew of those spoiled, ignorant, over-privileged 19 year olds, and it warmed my heart every time one of the profs whipped around and pwnt one of them.

Really, I'm pretty sure that to have an entire class go that nasty, she had to be doing a pretty shite job teaching. Even the most entitled fuckwits tend to be entitled fuckwits quietly to themselves unless you have no class control. All that questioning and belligerence makes me suspect she wasn't getting across the concepts she wanted to get across.

Of course I fucking hate postmodernism so I'm way biased.

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

silrana
2008-05-01 12:51 pm UTC (link)

Speaking from the other side, when I was in college I found nothing was more irritating than a professor who would rather spend all their time talking about their flavor of the month social cause or 'point of enlightenment' as one called it instead of the course material. Luckily I didn't have too many of those, because word usually got around about who to avoid if you wanted a real education in that subject.

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	aerobot 2008-05-02 06:45 am UTC (link)
	Word. All of my teachers were awesome, but when we got a guy in third year teaching us the basics all over again (to hone them), we got pissy real fast. Or my sister's science teacher in high school who would never shut up about his combi van. Yeah, don't blame her for skipping those. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	mistressrenet 2008-05-04 02:23 am UTC (link)
	The worst professor I had in college was belligerent, angry, and terrible at explaining things. One-- one-- student finally snapped at her, halfway through the semester. She was a flaming bitch to him ever after, but that was the only time I remember having anyone 'go after' one of my profs. (Reply to this)(Parent)

evilsqueakers
2008-05-02 11:00 am UTC (link)

b) hone your snark,

Like when my Religions prof told us to ask questions from this one guy during his presentation because said guy used the entire class time for the entire semester as one-on-one conversation. And the funny part was said guy almost missed it. Of course the prof blamed lovely his pain meds. And we all laughed a little too joyfully. It was beautiful since he is 19.

(Reply to this)(Parent)

	tree 2008-05-10 08:16 pm UTC (link)
	cries in sympathy (is a lecturer) (Reply to this)(Parent)

(Read comments) -