Whiny College Student Got Pwned!

[McGoddess09]

I'm not going to lie. I hate my Freshman English Comp II class right now. Is it the professor? No. I like him. He is also my Philosophy professor. He is blunt, but he is blunt because he cares and wants us to do better. Is the the subject? No. I love English! It's going to be my profession! Is it the material? No! We get to argue!

Then McG, why do you hate your class so? Well, dear children, it's because I am stuck with the dumbest, prissiest, whiniest students for two hours on Tuesdays and one hour on Thursdays!

Two weeks ago, we were told we were going to start a paper. In order to start this paper, we had to research a topic concerning the early American West and since it is only going to be three pages long, the topic had to be very specific. After researching, we had to go see the professor during his office hours only to get the topic approved. If he thought it would be suitable for a three page paper, it was approved and you could start. If he didn't think it was specific enough, he would stare at you until you go away (his words). The deadline for this was Thursday Feb 18th at 3pm, when he goes home for the day. In addition to telling us and writing on the board, he handed us a piece of paper that had specifications for the paper and a list of the deadlines.

Yesterday, I was feeling pretty good about this. I had had my topic approved the day before and my professor was impressed with it. I was prepared to do further research and start up the paper. All of a sudden, I hear this:

W= Whiny student
A= Awesome guy who pwned her

A to W:"Did you get your topic approved? It's due today."
W: "Oh no! I like totally forgot! He didn't like remind us! He is such an asshole!"
A: "You know, he told us two weeks ago about this. You should have written it down. He doesn't have to remind us. And anyway, he gave us all a sheet with deadlines. By the way, he warned us that he was a prick at the beginning of the semester, so you could have switched to another professor."

I was sitting there, giggling to myself, but my opinion changed of the awesome guy.

A: "But I heard he failed over half of his class last semester."

Uh no. HE didn't fail half of the class. THEY failed THEMSELVES. He gives us specific instructions on each paper before we do our rough drafts. They are on the sheet with the deadlines. So what if he is so specific? Just do the gosh danged work!

And yes, the professor did call himself a prick. He warned us that he uses the red pen often on our papers. He will be very blunt about what we did wrong and will write comments on the papers. If he hurts our feelers, he is not sorry. Why is he not sorry? Well, he wants to help us do better. He told us that we are not going to do better if we are coddled. We need to know our mistakes. If any student thought that they were going to be hurt by his comments, then they need to choose a different professor.

Because he said that, I decided to stay. I can take harsh criticism. I could use a swift kick in the ass with my writing.

[Magpie]

I want more profs like him!

(I wish I was more like him, but that's another matter, and I'm sure that as I get better at marking I will feel less guilt about taking marks off).

[Pairou]

My favorite teachers were like this. :3

[mikoyan29]

Sounds like an English professor I had when I was going to school. I hated his guts at the time but in looking back, he was being an ass because he wanted us to learn. Although, I don't think professors need to be like that so much, I think teachers in high school should be more like that.

[rageaholic]

Glad I don't have him! Professors like that know how to teach, but their attitude pisses me off. They treat us like we are all a bunch of idiots "ooh this is cooooooooollege, it's not going to easy like hiiiiiiiiiiiiiigh school!". It's like they pride themselves in failing students! Just shut up and teach!

That student sounds typical though. I remember having an english professor who was getting flack because of the way she graded a ROUGH DRAFT. She then wrote on the board the amount of points the paper was worth, explaining to the class how ridiculous they were being. Get this, it was worth 25 points out of 1000, 2.5% of their grade. She may have been picky with the grading, and not the best professor, but there was a god damn mutany over this little rough draft. It's similar to arguing with the professor over one test question (I've seen that before too!).

[McGoddess09]

Glad I don't have him! Professors like that know how to teach, but their attitude pisses me off. They treat us like we are all a bunch of idiots "ooh this is cooooooooollege, it's not going to easy like hiiiiiiiiiiiiiigh school!". It's like they pride themselves in failing students! Just shut up and teach!

The problem is, HE is not failing them! The students are failing themselves! His specifications are given to us on paper. They aren't hard to follow. His deadlines are perfectly spaced apart, because he understands that we have other classes besides his own. It's the students' own damn fault for not doing as they are told.

He does teach, but he only teaches the ones who want to be taught. He does not take attendance. He figures that we are paying for the class, so we can do as we wish, but there will be consequences to such actions. If you don't come to class, you don't do well. For the people who consistently go, but they get sick or someone dies or something goes wrong in general, he will work with you as long as you send him an email, saying that you take responsibility for missing class.

As for his attitude, it's preparing us for the real world. In the real world, people don't care if they hurt your feelers. He wants us to be better writers, so we can succeed in later courses, not only in English ones, but in other courses where we do have to write papers. I am ecstatic to have a teacher who is not afraid to give students a figurative kick in the ass if they need it.

He is one of my favorites and he knows me by face and name, so outside of class, if we see each other on campus, we say hello to each other. Since I have him every day (he is also my Philosophy teacher), we make jokes about how we haven't seen each other in sooooo long.

[Flying Grype]

I've known professors who taught way above their students' heads or who were so incompetent at communicating that the students never got the idea of what they were supposed to be learning. There are definitely profs out there who are sadistic with their students and take pride in their impossibly high standards. But in this case I agree that they were failing themselves -- it's not the prof's communication skills that are at fault if the kiddies don't read his instructions at all!

[rageaholic]

Mcgoddess, I apologize, he's probably a good professor and I have had those who are tough but fair. Like I said, they know how to teach, and in this case, it does sound like the students are to blame for their failure. I just hate that attitude they have in which they assume everyone is a moron who's going to fail. Yeah, great way to motivate! Maybe he's not like that, but I have had those who are, but I've ranted about that stuff enough on fratching, so I'll shut up now.

[Sightings Reporter]

I am taking an online class right now and feel your pain. I told my husband I was so very glad to not actually be in a physical class with the people I have to deal with via the discussion board.

The people is that class aren't doing the assignments as he assigns them, questions the posts of students who are doing the assignment correctly AND use wikipedia as their source when the syllabus screams that points will be taken off if a person uses it.

[Estil]

Actually, the way he "lays everything out" on the first day, including his own personality, you gotta respect that.

I certainly understand why you shouldn't use Wikipedia for papers, but it would've been MOST useful in studying for exams (I was a history/political science major); but Wikipedia didn't exist back then (1999-2003).

[Hyndis]

Wikipedia is awesome. As a starting point. It is not the be all end all, but it gives a great overview for almost every topic that exists.

From that starting off point you can then dig further and get more information.

Hint: Check the sources. [citation needed]

[draftermatt]

I had a few teachers like him in highschool & college. To this day I still regard them as the best teachers I ever had.

[Magpie]

Wikipedia is a great resource. In the natural sciences. I can look up any equation I need, get an explanation of what it means, learn what branch of math/science to look up if I need more info, etc. I just try to avoid it for anything subjective, up to and including material properties.

[trunks2k]

Wikipedia is awesome. As a starting point. It is not the be all end all, but it gives a great overview for almost every topic that exists.

From that starting off point you can then dig further and get more information.

Hint: Check the sources. [citation needed]

Exactly. Towards the end of college when wikipedia was starting to come into its own, that's what I'd do. I'd check the wikipedia article on it to get a rough overview of things, then I'd read the sources provided in the article. That'd give me more than enough to know what to look for and where to look. Excellent tool, but I'd never use it as a primary source in a paper.