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Teachers Be Crazy
Blackjoker:
--- Quote from: Akima on 14 Jun 2011, 21:19 ---
--- Quote from: Blackjoker on 13 Jun 2011, 22:26 ---6) In a different college, after transferring from the former one, I was in a political philosophy class where one student had to miss a week because her mother had died and she went back to attend the funeral. The professor does not accept papers by email. Well, the time she (the student) was gone the papers were due for an assignment, she got it back as soon as she returned, the professor told her "You get half credit, and be grateful that I'm generous enough to offer that' in front of the class. Oh, also if someones cell phone went off she would dock everones grade 5 points, and she did a random spin wheel to determine if there would be a pop quiz, and if she felt we went too long sans quiz she would say 'too bad, you get one anyway' the last one is more weird quirk, but still.
--- End quote ---
Apart from the professor humiliating the student publicly, none of this strikes me as all that heinous. When I was at uni, the basic policy was that ill-health of the student (backed up by a doctor's certificate) was the only acceptable excuse/reason for late submission of work. Most lecturers would cut some slack if they were approached about a problem before the deadline for submission, but were pretty flint-hearted if presented with a fait accompli after it. Mostly you were expected to put your work first.
On the mobile phone thing, students who are too lazy, selfish, or careless to turn off or silence their phones before class are very annoying, and your professor had obviously decided to recruit the power of peer-pressure since her own words had presumably been ignored in the past. Did it work?
Random pop-quizes? Nothing crazy with that at all. Spinning a dial is a bit theatrical, but many good teachers are.
If I'd been the professor, I would have covered these points with my students at the beginning of the semester. Beyond that, college students are supposed to be adults. As one of my profs put it on the first day of my freshman year, "I am not your mother. I am not your friend. I am not here to make your life easier. I am here to see that you master the course material, or fail you if you don't." He was actually one of my best lecturers, but I would not have dared to submit work to him late.
The other instances were pretty crazy, and the hot glue burns case verges on abusive. I mean, failure to treat burns, never mind the maths test thing?
--- End quote ---
The thing was she WAS made aware. She was told about it before the student left, she had even asked about turning in the paper early and was told that it was unacceptable. The spin dial for pop quizzes felt stupid and frankly it was rote memorization of random bits from the reading. I learned more from debating with other students than I did from her and had to correct her more than once. Then again I am probably the kind of student that most professors hate, ones that don't have time for their shit. The professor you quoted was probably pretty good, and I have had plenty of fairly acidic professors who were competent, hell one was damn brilliant and taught a lot but the guy was months behind on returning and grading papers to the point where a few of us asked him if it was worth us handing anything in if he couldn't keep to a deadline.
bainidhe_dub:
--- Quote from: Blackjoker on 14 Jun 2011, 22:04 ---...she had even asked about turning in the paper early and was told that it was unacceptable.
--- End quote ---
See that part makes no sense to me. I won't accept late work, but I ALSO won't accept work early, even when you KNOW you'll miss class the day it's due? And from what you say, it was a paper, not some kind of presentation or peer reviewed project even. What kind of professor does that? Except the crazy ones of course...
Blackjoker:
--- Quote from: bainidhe_dub on 15 Jun 2011, 04:46 ---
--- Quote from: Blackjoker on 14 Jun 2011, 22:04 ---...she had even asked about turning in the paper early and was told that it was unacceptable.
--- End quote ---
See that part makes no sense to me. I won't accept late work, but I ALSO won't accept work early, even when you KNOW you'll miss class the day it's due? And from what you say, it was a paper, not some kind of presentation or peer reviewed project even. What kind of professor does that? Except the crazy ones of course...
--- End quote ---
I think it was that the way things were set up we either dropped it off at her department mailbox or under the door of the office area she shared with a few of the other poly-sci profs. Side effect was that it was easy for papers to get lost and she didn't want to be bothered with papers before she was ready to take them. Her whole thing was on the day, not before or after, no exceptions. It was...interesting. The class was frankly a waste as while I got a decent grade there I learned very little from her or the lectures but I did learn how to write papers in such a way as to show what the person reading wants to hear/read and get the right scores for it, so I suppose it was good training for pushing paperwork.
Barmymoo:
Why didn't the girl just give the paper to a friend to hand in for her, if she was able to hand it in early? That doesn't excuse the teacher though, that's an appallingly unfair policy.
Blackjoker:
--- Quote from: Barmymoo on 15 Jun 2011, 07:02 ---Why didn't the girl just give the paper to a friend to hand in for her, if she was able to hand it in early? That doesn't excuse the teacher though, that's an appallingly unfair policy.
--- End quote ---
Dunno, my guess is that either she forgot or that she didn't know anyone in class. I talked to her a few times, she was in her 40's though so she didn't really socialize with most of us. From what I get she left to go home shortly after she heard about her mothers death. On the upside it did eventually get sorted out, I knew the head of the political science department and helped her get a meeting with him to get things straightened out.
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