Stupid Teacher
I can’t think of anything (at the moment) that frustrates me more than a bad teacher. I have a class this semester, speech, which I was sort of looking forward to, but I also had a bit of aprehension. So far, it’s been terribly easy, but that’s not what bothers me.
It’s the teacher. Here is a sample dialogue (if you can even call it that) from the class:
Teacher: What does equivocal mean?
Me: Ambiguous
Teacher: Ok, but was does that mean?
Me: …
Teacher: Well?
Me: Not clear, has more than one meaning.
Me (thinking): I didn’t know Ambiguous has more than one meaning now…
That doesn’t seem like a big deal, but breaking a word down into the simplest words possible is just annoying. I guess we can’t really use bigger words in college today.
Here’s something else that just gets into my crawl. I’ve asked several questions now and pointed out a few things that didn’t make sense to me because I thought they were wrong. EVERY SINGLE TIME, the teacher has answered, ‘because that’s what the book says.’
Goddammit, how is that helpful? At least one of the things has been blatantly wrong and I got the smackdown in class, when I was right! If that’s not the height of incompetance as a teacher, I don’t know what is.
Here’s a few other things that we absolutely cannot do in class, or other rules that we have to follow:
1. Never, ever, use an abstract as a source in a speech
2. Follow obscure outlining practices simply because that’s what the book reccommends. I argued a logical alternative, and was told, ‘because that’s what the book says.’ Then I was further instructed to just do it without asking questions.
3. We MUST use notecards while giving our speech.
4. We MUST stand behind the podium while giving our speech.
There are others, but that just gives you the general idea. ANY movement away from these things recieves a reprimand.
The teacher also absolutely refuses to use blackboard (our Universities course software) because by putting notes on there, students might feel they can just skip class, even though she already has an attendance policy in place. This request came from multiple students, including myself. Using blackboard would provide a central forum for discussing class issues, grade access, and access to course documents such as the syllabus and class schedule. Assignments can be posted for easy access.
The teacher has refused to accept e-mailed work from us as she doesn’t want to use her ink and paper for printing it out (it’s provided by the University), but has no problem using that same ink and paper to give us the assignments in the first place.
Getting back to the original point – the thing that really sets me off. How in the world can ‘because that’s what the book says’ be seen as an acceptable answer for any college level student? It’s not like we’re talking rocket science, either. We’re talking basic procedure, techniques, and facts! If the teacher can’t explain these things – as her job requires – then what good is she?
From the way I see it, she’s just a talking hot water bottle with no purpose other than reguritating the book and imposing stupid rules without basis.
I would have gained more knowledge by reading wikipedia and joining a club where I could give presentations.
For once, I’m truly looking forward to teacher evaluations at the end of the semester. It probably won’t make any difference at all, but it might make me feel better to evaluate this teacher as she really is: incompetent.
