I said what?! (pretty dang long)

[PepperElf]

the two teachers i mentioned weren't bad as far as i know.

one of them is the best friend of one of my old co-workers. use to work as a CSR for tech support. from what i was told, it was an effort just to get the kids to sit down and listen. and she lost count of how many kids threatened law suits for getting homework, their bad grades etc.

the other was one of my sis's best friends and i know personally.

in both cases tho... yeah, the school boards ordered them to pass the failing students anyway. (the school loses grant money for failing kids... and in the second teacher's case, the failing kids also had rich parents who were able to "influence" the board)

only otner scary thing i can think of is... there was a 5th grade teacher in my old theatre group. she was horrified to find out that the school had stopped teaching spelling for the earlier grades. One day she brought in a pile of stories her kids had written... and we sat around trying to figure out what these weirdly spelled words were suppose to be. All I remember was... I figured out "hight hill" was "high heel". ... just wait until these kids have to write resumes. (a lot of companies won't bother reading them if there's spelling errors)

[protege]

... just wait until these kids have to write resumes. (a lot of companies won't bother reading them if there's spelling errors)

I know mine won't. When we get resumes like that, they go right into the circular file. We figure, if they're not going to either care (or put forth the effort) on something like that, will they care about their job duties?

[Hyndis]

Ahh yes, those folks who think spelling and grammar are optional.

They piss me off to no end.

The written word is how most important communication is done. It could be on a piece of paper or on a screen, but its still the written word. Those people who put absolutely no effort into it and then complain that no one takes them seriously just boggle the mind.

If you think so poorly of your own thoughts that you can't be arsed to communicate them in an intelligible manner, why should I be arsed to try to decipher them? If they're worthless to you, they'll be worthless to me.


Granted, typos do happen to everyone, but there is a massive gulf between an honest mistake and simple laziness. That said, teachers who don't actually teach English (or whichever language is the dominant language of the country) are doing their kids a huge disservice, one that ought to be criminal.

[tropicsgoddess]

Your Dean rocks! It wouldn't surprise me if DM and his mom pulled the same stunt in your friend's class and all the others he takes because the little shit didn't get a B for "effort". Helicopter parents suck.

[Damien]

9 years as a teacher, 5 schools in 2 countries, i have met my fair share of EW's, princesses, 'bush-lawyers etc... have some classic tales to tell...

[KhirasHY]

In six years of teaching at three different schools (including one major Midwestern university as a grad assistant), I have discovered that 10-15% of all students in general are exactly this type. In six years, I've only ever had one class in which everyone passed, and a student has to really want to fail to fail in my class.

One of my policies, for instance, is that if you aren't happy with a grade on a paper, you can revise it and resubmit it again up until the end of the semester, provided it was turned in on time originally (with no guarantee of a better grade). A paper was due in class today. One third of the class was not there to turn it in--7 out of 21 people did not show up (although one did have a legitimate excuse). Seriously--they could turn in complete garbage, get a crap grade on it, then revise it for a better grade later, essentially with no penalty. I tell them this. Do they listen? No. Frakin' ridiculous.

I posted this in one of your other posts, but I guess I can type out the full speech My favorite College professor gave what he called his "Hell Year Declaration" on the first day of every class he taught. It didn't matter if it was a Freshman class or a room full of Grad Students, he would always give the same speech with very few deviations in the message, but new wording each time to keep things interesting. I heard it 5 times, so it's pretty easy to get the general message across years later.

"Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to <whatever class we're taking this time around>, my name is Professor McDonell, and I will be shaping the travesties you turn in to something that I can read without vomiting. I'm going to get a few things out of the way right now, so pay attention, I am not in the business of repeating myself because you couldn't bend your mind around my words.

You are not on a playground, and this is not high school, I have absolutely no interest in holding your hands if you don't do the work I assign. I do not accept any assignment that is sub-par, and any of who you dare to hand me such a paper will find it handed right back. Any assignment I receive which does not live up to my standards will be re-written until it is fit to be read, but do not imagine this will excuse you fromyour other papers. I suggest you brush up on the various style guides mandated in your textbook list for this class, I will not accept any paper that does not explicitly follow those guidelines. Some of you may find yourself revising an entire semester's worth of papers if you don't take me seriously, so I suggest you not attempt to play games with me.

Now, here is your first assignment: we will next meet on <next day of class>, I expect an 8-paragraph essay on <topic> to be written and turned in on that day. It will be double-spaced, and be in <style, usually MLA Style>. Failure to turn in any paper on that date will result in a 0 grade for the paper, failure to turn in an acceptable paper will result in more work for you, so let's all play nice, shall we? If you have a problem with that, the registrar's office is in the main campus hall, you may leave my class now to try and find a teacher who expects the minimum instead."

Usually, by the end of that speech, 1/3 of the class would walk out and immediately transfer to another teacher. Of those of us who stayed, maybe 1 person would fail, but Prof. McDonnell once told me that 99% of the students who were brave enough to stay in his class passed, and probably learned a few things as well. He never mentioned if he had entitlement whores or helicopter parents, but then most of them probably turned and ran the moment they heard his opening speech.

[JoitheArtist]

When I was in college, I got soooooo pissed at profs who would let me coast along. I mean, I'm smart and a good student, but not THAT smart. Case in point: Art History.

Now, I like art history. I think it's interesting, like most history. But this class really got my goat. The teacher was a grad student who was so focused on his own postmodern work, that he could barely teach the class (Pre-historic to Gothic). 90% of the reading had nothing to do with the subject matter at hand, and the questions were dumb. Finally, after the mid-term, I stopped studying the textbook, tuned out the lectures, etc. About a week before the final, I looked over the textbook briefly. I got an 84% on the final. no WAY should I have been able to do that, but the questions were excruciatingly simple, and even the slide identification multiple choice. Hmm, gee, wonder who painted that portrait of Henry VIII that is used as a prime example of Holbein's work?

But it gets better.

After the final, the teacher had us pass our tests to the person next to us, and we graded our classmates' work. The majority of the class didn't even pass the test! So, what does teacher do? Does he develop a spine and say tough patooties, that's what happens when you don't listen? Nope. He decides that out of sympathy, so they don't have to retake the class, he will "round up" the scores. After surveying the class, he finds out that rounding up by 16% will give most (but not all!) a passing grade (C or above). Yes, even with a free 16%, multiple choice questions, etc, some people still couldn't get a C.

84%--on my own, basic knowledge of history, skimming of book, etc.

add 16% freebie because of a class of distracted, daddy-is-paying-for-this children.

100%. Yep. I got a "perfect" score on a test I never studied for.

I should NEVER have been able to get away with that, and my good profs made sure nothing like that ever happened in their classes.

Oh, and I forgot to tell about the student who walked into the test 20 minutes late, and the prof gave him the full amount of time to take the f'ing final.

Gaaaah! Yeah, Joi and the art department did not get along just real well... *L*

[Hyndis]

There's a reason why the typical liberal arts degree is much more "lightweight" than, say, a bachelor's of science.

[Jester]

and people wondered WHY they still took ATTENDENCE IN COLLEGE/post secondary schools/tech schools??? hey you got that scholorship or grant or loan and whomever wants to MAKE SURE you are there and using the $$$$ not pissing away someone elses money

My experience in college was that some professors took attendance, but most did not. Those who did, I made a point of attending their classes. Those who did not, well, I could afford to skip a class here or there, and still get by. The general attitude of the latter profs was that, "Hey, this is YOUR education to do with what you will. If you want to give it your all, great. If you want to give it no effort at all, that's your business, but don't be surprised by the grade that you get."

Of course, I went to a very large university; your own academic mileage may vary.

College professors and administrators don't give a damn about your passing or not if you're not putting in the effort for their classes.

And then there are some classes that sometimes, very little effort is required. Two come to mind from my college days.

1. College algebra. The most basic math class offered that wasn't remedial, and it fulfilled my only math requirement as a broadcasting major. While I am excellent at math, I flat out didn't (and don't) give two shits about it, and knew I would coast through that class. I did. So much so that I stopped going, except for test days, which were marked on the syllabus. Now, quiz days were NOT marked, and were 10% of your grade, but I just didn't bother. And, giving up 10% of my grade voluntarily, I still got an easy B in that class.

2. Microeconomics. Not my favorite class, as it wasn't straight math like the above, and involved economic theory which, frankly, is not my strength. There were three tests for the entire grade in that class. For the first third, I showed up all the time, studied my ass off, took notes.....and barely got a C on the first exam. For the second third, I showed up a little less, including skipping a few classes to go on a road trip to see the Rolling Stones in Los Angeles (I went to school in Phoenix), and actually bought some officially sanctioned notes to study from a bit. I got a B on the second exam. For the last third, I never once went to class, and only studied from the book and the purchased notes, not having any of my own to go on. On the exam, I not only got an A by curve, I got an A by straight percentage, AND actually corrected the professor on one of the answers that he had wrong. In class. In front of the 300 others who took the test, many of whom had been there far more than me. (Luckily he didn't get pissy with me, but realized he had made an honest mistake.)

They want to make sure you don't make some one think, "<so and so> University must be pretty crappy if this is the kind of person they give a diploma to."

I would think that about my least favorite sports celebrity, who I think is the biggest douchebag jerk around, but sadly, he went to MY school!

Ahh yes, those folks who think spelling and grammar are optional.

They piss me off to no end.

If you think so poorly of your own thoughts that you can't be arsed to communicate them in an intelligible manner, why should I be arsed to try to decipher them?

To be fair, there are some people who are just really bad with spelling and/or grammar. My friend Frank, for example, is a fantastic writer, but an abysmal speller. Luckily for him, he has both SpellCheck AND me.

Oh, and I forgot to tell about the student who walked into the test 20 minutes late, and the prof gave him the full amount of time to take the f'ing final.

Now that's just messed up. No profs worth a damn should give someone late extra time, short of a very, very good excuse. Like, say, having to have their kidney replaced on the way to the exam.

I took a biology class in college that, and they made it very clear that, sort of a major emergency, there would be NO makeup exams of any kind in that class. Well, for one exam, I studied my ass off with a friend of mine the night before. And we studied late. Perhaps too late.

For the 12:40 exam, I woke up at 12:56. I shit you not when I say I was fully dressed, out of the dorms, and on my bicycle racing towards the central part of the campus by 12:57. I walked into the class at 1:05, knowing that I would only have until 1:30 to finish the exam. In essence, I had half the time everyone else did.

Adrenaline is a wondrous thing. I was so amped up, I was flying through the test, and damned if I didn't know just about all the answers. When I say "flying," I mean it--I somehow finished by 1:20. The TA looked at me handing in the test early, and gave me an "Are you sure?" look? I just gave him a thumbs up, knowing I had aced it.

I did.

[LadyAndreca]

My college got so tired of students blowing off class that they instituted a campus-wide manditory attendance policy: No more than two unexcused absences per semester for any given class. After that, your grade starts dropping; for each absence, your final grade drops to the next lowest letter-grade. A becomes A-, A- becomes B+, and so on.

The first few weeks, the classes are always full as students try to estimate how often the professor checks attendance and hoard their absences for later in the semester. But, after the initial drop-add fluctuations, attendance stays pretty steady.

Some professors are more lenient than others about excused/unexcused absences. Most of the ones I've had require written proof (doctor's note, auto mechanic's bill, ect). This semester though...I had a really nasty cold earlier this month, and missed a week's worth of classes. Except, apparently, I went to my Monday class. (I only have the VAGUEST recollection of this, but three pages of highly-detailed music history notes to prove it.) I have that professor for four classes, and he excused me from all the classes I missed based on how I looked and sounded that day.

[Tigress]

The only reason my college had an attendance policy is because there was a limited number of classes for the amount of students that needed to take them. So there was sometimes a waiting list of students hoping to slide in one or two weeks into the semester. Students also had a bad habit of informally "dropping" the class by just not showing up anymore.

It was bad enough that the professors had to take attendance and drop those that missed up to two week's worth of classes.

[One-Fang]

Is it a bad sign that a lecturer at a College I worked for once told me they take attendance because if the Police turn up needing to know whether a student was actually in class at the time or not, they need to be able to say...?

Ah, I vaguely remember university. Show up at 8.15. Play cards in the cafe till around 7pm. Go home. Good times. I did fail most of the courses and drop out, of course. But I never blamed anyone but me, and returned a couple of years later to finish the degree properly.