Elitist College Professors?

[Rageaholic]

I was reading a thread on CS about horrible college professors/teachers. One person brought up a professor that they liked but everyone else hated. The professor was one of those who had a low opinion of the public school systems. He thought they weren't nearly tough enough and made it clear that many who were brought up in public schools would fail.

That actually reminds me of a Poli Sci professor I had who was very similar. To her credit, she was a very good professor. She knew how to teach, how to make things interesting, and did push us to things outside the classroom. And honestly, despite the way she came across, she was actually pretty nice once you got to know her.

But my God did she come across as insufferable. She actually said that most people would fail or drop her class. She also said that her class was the most important we'll ever take and that it will change our lives (granted, it was a good class, but it didn't change my life). She just seemed like one of those people who know that they are really pissing people off with their sense of superiority, but don't care because in their eyes, they're right. Yeah, I don't like those people much.

Overall, she was a good professor, but that smug attitude got really grating after awhile.

[bex1218]

Not college but high school. My last class I stepped out of. Best teacher ever. Tough as nails. She was awesome, though. Made it through Hamlet with fun. She got me into one of my favorie comic series and "Tudors".

I was dreading her class from what I heard.

[mathnerd]

Having been a college professor, I might be a little biased. Though it was a community college, so maybe not.

My personal opinion is that just like with every other profession on the planet, there are good ones and bad ones. From my very unscientific sample of "all the college professors I either had while I was a student or worked with as colleagues", I'd say the good ones far outnumber the bad ones.

[AccountingDrone]

I loved my advisor/poly sci prof. I was in a poli sci 100 level class in 1981 because it was a requirement for a summer seminar I wanted to attend and it was a fairly small class, about 15 people. It was also a fairly typical assortment for 1981 with the exception of a Jimi Hendrix with a huge fro dashiki wearing gentleman of very dark complexion. Think this:


Everything issue that was wrong in the US was because the white man was holding the black man down. I honestly felt like I had wandered into some sort of Black Panther/Black Power meeting, not a poly sci class on environmental issues. Our prof was great, every single argument he had a rational explanation as to why the Fro Dude [what we tended to call him behind his back] was incorrect. He was amazingly polite and gentle with Fro Dude, and no matter how hard FD tried to bait the prof, it was like trying to poke jello. It took about 3 classes until FD gave up and dropped the class, technically 2 classes was the drop limit but the prof arranged for him to drop it anyway!

I have to admit, poly sci is a very interesting field, but some of the people that take the classes can be unique.

[Greenday]

I can't stand those teachers who think their class is the most important you can take. Especially if it's some crappy gen ed and didn't apply to my major at all.

It becomes the perfect time to pull out the smartass knowitall attitude and start correcting the teacher when they make mistakes and such.

[bbbr]

I attended my states 2 primary university systems, the "elite" one at first then the "2nd tier" one. Ran across more elitist, arrogant pains in the arse in my 2 years at the supposedly "elite" university than I ever did in 8 years of going part time at the "2nd tier" uni taking classes across the spectrum because they looked like fun(and usually were).

The general education English class instructor at the "elite" school was a radical feminist (open admitted as such) and refused to pass any guys in her course with anything above a low "C" average. We'd get an assignment, do it, the guys would fail and then compare notes afterwards and find the girls with "A's" wrote the same damn thing. I understand English lit is a bit subjective but we we were covering stuff I had dealt with way back in the 8th grade earning solid "A's". Made it a point avoid to her classes like tbe plague as i killed my general req's. She was one of many I ran across at that uni, worst part was we weren't even the main campus but a pure commuter campus that nearly fed the main campus where the "elite" reputation was earned.

The "2nd tier" uni was great, only hit a few professors with a stick up their arse. The best class I had was pretty much a "law for dummies" course taught by a retired Superior Court Judge with 30+ years on the bench. He blast to listen to and explained everything in easy to comprehend terms. In his retirement he took up sitting on the states small claims court circuit and had the class do a project related to it- sit in on a session and report on an interesting case, he would use his connections to get the results. He was NOT a fan of Judge Judy though-she took a really juicy case he wanted and denied him the chance to preside over it. He let the class know in no uncertain terms what he thought of her.

[patiokitty]

That would have been me that posted about the prof with a low opinion of the public school systems. And that prof was right to have such an opinion too. In this province not much attention is paid to making sure students have much grasp on writing coherently, but it is expected to know how to write coherently in university. Hell, my university used to have a mandatory class on English grammar for all English majors and minors because the quality of writing coming out of the high schools is appalling.

Our public schools here are a joke - you can no longer fail students, regardless of whether or not they can actually do the work. The school district does not want teachers to actually teach their subjects properly, and are instead usually glorified babysitters. A majority of English students I was in several classes with could not string together proper sentences at all but had somehow managed As and Bs throughout high school.

What the prof's intention was to prepare these students to not expect the same kinds of marks they got during high school because he had come to find that many of these students had no grasp of how to write essays, short paragraphs, or even spell properly. After one particularly dreadful round of papers he handed out a grammar worksheet to test people on. Two of us passed it - myself and another girl, both of whom did not take high school English anywhere in Newfoundland. He was marking assignments using the university's marking system and not using one of his own devising, and even then a majority of my classmates in my first year English classes would never have been admitted to these classes if they had to write entrance exams for the courses in the first place.

So, I would not classify him as an elitist. I would classify him as a realist. Not only that, while he had high expectations I can safely tell you that as you went higher in the program the profs only got more stringent and strict. His place in the program was to, more or less, weed out the students who were not capable of doing the coursework at the expected level.

[wolfie]

After one particularly dreadful round of papers he handed out a grammar worksheet to test people on. Two of us passed it - myself and another girl, both of whom did not take high school English anywhere in Newfoundland. He was marking assignments using the university's marking system and not using one of his own devising, and even then a majority of my classmates in my first year English classes would never have been admitted to these classes if they had to write entrance exams for the courses in the first place.

Definitely a legitimate thing to do. The poor marks on one set of papers revealed that there were people in the class who didn't understand the basics on which the class was based, but got in because their high school classes (i.e. prerequisites for the course) had a bad case of "grade inflation".

A professor's time is limited, and students without proper comprehension of the background will absorb a disproportionate share of it, "starving" students who have legitimately earned a place in the class. By isolating the students who were trying to build a stud wall "hanging in space" (and hopefully getting them to drop the course), it would leave more of his time available for students who had poured proper footings but were having difficulty with certain aspects of framing a house.

[mathnerd]

and even then a majority of my classmates in my first year English classes would never have been admitted to these classes if they had to write entrance exams for the courses in the first place.

The college where I used to teach required ALL students to take placement tests, regardless of how recently they'd graduated from high school or earned their GED*. The unfortunate reality was that 85% of all students entering the college were required to take college preparatory/developmental coursework in at least one of the three CP areas (mathematics, reading, writing), 60% requiring coursework in all three areas and 25% of all entering students had to start at the lowest level offered** (there were three levels offered in each subject area. The lowest levels in each subject area was approximately 3rd-4th grade level work).

*This was a community college. The only entrance requirements were a HS diploma or equivalent, the ability to pay and being in possession of a beating heart.

**Percentages are rounded off to the nearest 5 percent.

[Hyena Dandy]

I had to do recovery-type Math classes. Which annoyed me, because the reason I had to was that the school wouldn't allow me extra time on tests until after I was a student. And I wasn't a student until I passed the tests. Catch-22. And I ended up running out of time because math takes me longer than most people.

[Racket_Man]

My biggest beef with a couple of statistics professors was this: almost ALL of them would NOT allow lower level statistics courses to be transferred/received credit for statistics courses taken and PASSED from either other professors OR other colleges/uni's.

The reasoning was "WELL they do not teach the same material the WAY I DO".

I knew several people who had taken/passed these courses at other colleges and had to essentially sit through THE EXACT SAME MATERIAL twice AND waste the tuition money to boot so they could get the required "credit".

[protege]

When I was in school, I ran into quite a few teachers that were full of themselves. They all acted like their class was the "most important" one ever, and that my entire life depended on it. Even better, was that for several of them...I took their class as a requirement for graduation.

That is, my college insisted on students taking a few science classes. So I took Chemistry and Biology. Chem wasn't too bad, since I had it in high school. Even though I wasn't planning on being a scientist, chem was easier this time around. Mainly because the professor wasn't an elitist dick. Instead, he managed to make it interesting...never mind he accidentally turned his Bunsen burner into a torch and scorched the ceiling

Biology was another story. I had it in high school...and hated having to take it again in college. Boring as hell, and the prof's method was very difficult (lots of double-talk) to get my head around. I tried, but because it wasn't interesting (and because I wasn't majoring in biology)...I couldn't help but not give a shit. I was there "under protest" in other words. Oddly enough, I got a B in that class.

[Rageaholic]

Oddly enough, I got a B in that class.

LOL, I've had that happen so many times. Years ago, I had this accounting professor who was notoriously bad at teaching. Can't say I learned much at all from his class and expected to fail, but I somehow passed with a 3.5.

PatioKitty: Judging by what you described, it sounds like a lot of the failing grades were merited. However, I still despise the arrogant "I'm better than most people" attitude that those professors have. Doesn't make them bad at teaching, it just makes them a pain in the ass.

[patiokitty]

Oh, I've definitely had profs that have that whole 'holier than thou' attitudes going on, and a majority of them can't teach a damn thing! I've walked out on several of those types without a second thought.

[Primer]

The college where I used to teach required ALL students to take placement tests, regardless of how recently they'd graduated from high school or earned their GED*. The unfortunate reality was that 85% of all students entering the college were required to take college preparatory/developmental coursework in at least one of the three CP areas (mathematics, reading, writing), 60% requiring coursework in all three areas and 25% of all entering students had to start at the lowest level offered** (there were three levels offered in each subject area. The lowest levels in each subject area was approximately 3rd-4th grade level work).

*This was a community college. The only entrance requirements were a HS diploma or equivalent, the ability to pay and being in possession of a beating heart.

**Percentages are rounded off to the nearest 5 percent.

Mathenerd, that is the same way it is at my school, and I'm one of the "specialists" that teaches the remedial math classes. One big difference: my school requires only a warm body, not the HS diploma or GED. If they do not have one of those, they are put into the Adult Basic Education program. If they do, then generally I, or someone like me, gets them.

That would have been me that posted about the prof with a low opinion of the public school systems. And that prof was right to have such an opinion too. In this province not much attention is paid to making sure students have much grasp on writing coherently, but it is expected to know how to write coherently in university. Hell, my university used to have a mandatory class on English grammar for all English majors and minors because the quality of writing coming out of the high schools is appalling.

Our public schools here are a joke - you can no longer fail students, regardless of whether or not they can actually do the work. The school district does not want teachers to actually teach their subjects properly, and are instead usually glorified babysitters. A majority of English students I was in several classes with could not string together proper sentences at all but had somehow managed As and Bs throughout high school.

What the prof's intention was to prepare these students to not expect the same kinds of marks they got during high school because he had come to find that many of these students had no grasp of how to write essays, short paragraphs, or even spell properly.

So, I would not classify him as an elitist. I would classify him as a realist. Not only that, while he had high expectations I can safely tell you that as you went higher in the program the profs only got more stringent and strict. His place in the program was to, more or less, weed out the students who were not capable of doing the coursework at the expected level.

PatioKitty, Our public school system is just as bad down here in central Texas. I actually dread getting kids right out of high school, but I also see it as job security. I try to be a realist with them, and let them know that this is not high school anymore, and I am not their momma. They are adults, and it's time to pull up their big kid panties.

I try not to come off as being elitist, but I'm afraid some people might see me that way. I'm really just trying to give them a firm kick in the butt and a jump start into the real world.