Tweet
BuggedMei... You just described my Western Civilization professor from this past semester to a T. Not that he didn't know his stuff, he did, but if something had to do with how a certain group was treated in history, he would go on tangents, not allowing anyone to interrupt or discuss, and I'd just ending up texting my friend (who was also in the same class) the rest of class.
It didn't help that the class was at seven in the morning, but come on. I had another class those same days with a different professor, who was very awesome and encouraged discussion, as long as it had something to do with what we were learning. One class, we started talking about the novel we were reading (Going After Cacciato by Tim O'Brien) and ended up discussing the Vietnam era as a whole. In that case, the professor herself derailed the discussion by mentioned she had been teaching at my uni since that time.
What was my point? Wait a second, let me think... Oh! The teacher/student relationship has to go both ways: the teacher must let the students engage in discussion on the topic rather than going on tangents, but the student must also be willing to discuss and learn for the sake of learning, not just a grade. I approach most of my classes with this attitude; sometimes I keep the attitude, sometimes I don't. I could quote some Zen philosophy on this, but I think I'll just shut up now, as my fingers tire from typing all this random gibberish.
It didn't help that the class was at seven in the morning, but come on. I had another class those same days with a different professor, who was very awesome and encouraged discussion, as long as it had something to do with what we were learning. One class, we started talking about the novel we were reading (Going After Cacciato by Tim O'Brien) and ended up discussing the Vietnam era as a whole. In that case, the professor herself derailed the discussion by mentioned she had been teaching at my uni since that time.
What was my point? Wait a second, let me think... Oh! The teacher/student relationship has to go both ways: the teacher must let the students engage in discussion on the topic rather than going on tangents, but the student must also be willing to discuss and learn for the sake of learning, not just a grade. I approach most of my classes with this attitude; sometimes I keep the attitude, sometimes I don't. I could quote some Zen philosophy on this, but I think I'll just shut up now, as my fingers tire from typing all this random gibberish.
Comment