Nitpicky Professors

[MadMike]

What's really funny is that we actually had a kid named Jon (spelled that way) in our class at the time.

Let me guess -- she insisted he was spelling his own name wrong.

He took me out of class to yell at me for making him look bad.

I can't stand teachers like that. Some of them seem to think they're God, and they're never wrong, and if you try to tell them they are there's hell to pay even if they are wrong. I've had a few of those.

On the other side of the coin, I've had a few that would actually be grateful if they were wrong and you politely pointed it out. In fact, I had one that if he mispelled a word on the board and you caught it, you got extra credit.

[Rageaholic]

Well it turned out it was partly my fault. I forgot I had to save the word document before editing it. I had realized this during class where I couldn't save the word document to email for some reason. It also turns out I could have handwritten the answers. I tried to explain my confusion to the professor, but he was rushed, and I don't think he was buying it.

You know how some people are good at lying and could make you believe anything? I had the opposite problem. I wasn't lying, but it may have looked that way to the professor. Hopefully he'll see that I DID email the answers to him before hand and didn't cheat.

[DrFaroohk]

I wasn't lying, but it may have looked that way to the professor. Hopefully he'll see that I DID email the answers to him before hand and didn't cheat.

That happens to me all the time. I tend to display all the traits of a liar when I'm being truthful.

But as long as I tell the truth, I don't see any difference between someone who doesn't believe me and someone who does believe me but is deliberately setting me up to look bad. I find that it saves time. So if you accuse me of stealing and I tell you I did not do it and I really did not do it, but you don't believe me and do whatever bad thing is within your power to do, I'm going to treat you the way I would treat someone who was actually doing the embezzling themselves and trying to pin it on me.

[HYHYBT]

That happens to me all the time. I tend to display all the traits of a liar when I'm being truthful.

But as long as I tell the truth, I don't see any difference between someone who doesn't believe me and someone who does believe me but is deliberately setting me up to look bad. I find that it saves time. So if you accuse me of stealing and I tell you I did not do it and I really did not do it, but you don't believe me and do whatever bad thing is within your power to do, I'm going to treat you the way I would treat someone who was actually doing the embezzling themselves and trying to pin it on me.

That hardly seems reasonable. Taking your example, if there appears to be embezzling going on, you're supposed to just take everybody at their word that they're not doing it? I mean, sure, a confession would be convenient, but it's hardly likely. And that someone who isn't a complete idiot with their trust is investigating possible embezzlement is hardly a rational reason to assume, much less treat them as if, they are the guilty party.

[DrFaroohk]

Meh, I don't care about what anyone else is doing. I just know that I didn't do whatever it was, and I told you so, so you have no excuses for anything that comes after that. I mean hey, I told you. And I was right. Everything else is irrelevant.


Sure it's probably unreasonable, but I think we're all entitled to be unreasonable from time to time. Think about it - an employer can FIRE YOU, and take away your livelihood, on the suspicion that you might possibly be stealing, EVEN IF YOU ARE NOT. Does that sound the least bit reasonable?

[Andara Bledin]

Meh, I don't care about what anyone else is doing. I just know that I didn't do whatever it was, and I told you so, so you have no excuses for anything that comes after that. I mean hey, I told you. And I was right. Everything else is irrelevant.

Yeah, because nobody ever lies about what they did.

You are acting precisely like one of those douchebag sucky customers that get all bent out of shape when asked to verify who they are for security purposes when dealing with money. I mean, after all, they said who they were, so everybody should just accept that because it's not possible that they were lying to cover their asses.

Do you honestly believe that sort of illogic is going to fly with anyone?

^-.-^

[DrFaroohk]

I don't care who lies or who doesn't lie. If it's a customer thing, that's different. Yeah I expect people to provide ID even if they say they're 21.

I'm just saying I've been in situations where there are real consequences that depend upon whether the person asking me questions believes me or not. Like when the police were sure I had robbed this place or at least been involved in it. Neither was true, but they didn't believe me. Eventually it all blew over, but if it hadn't, I would've treated those cops as if they had deliberately conspired to frame me. I really don't see that as so much more unreasonable than they themselves were acting.

[senor boogie woogie]

I had this turd of an accounting professor in college who would do "pop quizzes" on students which I (and everyone else) really hated. We had him Monday, Wednesday and Friday and if he pop quizzed us on Monday, we thought on Wednesday we would be safe, but a lot of the time he would do it on Wednesday. What a fucking asshole. I teach and I would never do that with my students. The only reason he did that crap was because it was a power trip to him and I hate that too. To this day, I abhor the word "quiz". It's a test.


There was another teacher, a female grad student. I forget what class this was, it may have been an English class, and it was something that involved writing lots of multi page reports. Like everyone else, I wrote my name on my report. But this fucking bitch (without saying beforehand) failed my report because I did not put my name on EVERY page of a stapled report. WTF? She pulled that shit on everyone and we all marched down to her office and got her to change the grades.


One thing that made me mad about elementary school was when someone would ask the teacher the correct spelling, with them saying "Look it up in the dictionary." Well, if I dont know how to spell the word, a dictionary isn't going to be of help. You are the fucking teacher with at least a college degree and maybe a Masters. Now, again, how do you spell this fucking word (you lazy sow).

BOOGIE BOOGIE!

[Rageaholic]

One thing that made me mad about elementary school was when someone would ask the teacher the correct spelling, with them saying "Look it up in the dictionary." Well, if I dont know how to spell the word, a dictionary isn't going to be of help. You are the fucking teacher with at least a college degree and maybe a Masters. Now, again, how do you spell this fucking word (you lazy sow).

Yeah that used to bug me too. Though to be fair, it's easy to find the correct word if you know the first couple of letters. Still, I hate the passive aggressive ways some teachers use to get out of answering simple questions. Usually justifying it by saying "well it's a learning experience" or some equally grating line.

I should also add that this particular professor (from my OP) is also really impatient. He gets angry if he has to explain something again. Or he'll ask a question and get angry when no one knows the answer (I'm usually too busy trying to figure out the excel program by the time he gets there). I understand that there are some people who are very frusturating to explain things to (been there done that), but I've also been at the other end and it's equally frusturating when someone expects me to get the answer right off the bat.

[HYHYBT]

Particularly obnoxious if you don't happen to have a dictionary on you

As for not being able to look up words you can't spell... it takes longer, but even if you start by looking for "Felidelfya," when you don't find it or any other spellings beginning with "f" then you will probably eventually start thinking either that it's not in the dictionary at all, or that it uses some other letter or letters that make an F sound.

(without saying beforehand) failed my report because I did not put my name on EVERY page of a stapled report.

Having your own little eccentricities about how papers should be done is one thing; in some ways and within limits it's even a good thing, as it teaches adaptability (as in, there's not just one way to do something, and the right way to format is the one the teacher or boss wants, whether you've done it that way before or not.) But either expecting mind reading or deliberately setting up your entire class for a failing grade is inexcusable.

[Andara Bledin]

As for not being able to look up words you can't spell... it takes longer, but even if you start by looking for "Felidelfya," when you don't find it or any other spellings beginning with "f" then you will probably eventually start thinking either that it's not in the dictionary at all, or that it uses some other letter or letters that make an F sound.

It's a bit more confusing when there's an actual place of Filadelfia.

However, in the Internet era, "Felidelfya" brings up "Philadelphia" as the 2nd response on Google.

^-.-^

[AdminAssistant]

Teachers also want to teach students how to figure out something on their own. At a certain age, you need to learn how to use a dictionary.

[Panacea]

I have this statistics professor who has made specific instructions as to how he wants this test turned in (it's take home). He wants us to email the test as a word document and an excel file to two different email addresses. He also wants us to print a version of the test to take to class.

I suspect he's nervous about us cheating since it's a take home exam. He made us sign some thing promising we would not help or accept help from other students. And I ask, if he's that worried about cheating, WHY DID HE MAKE IT A TAKE HOME EXAM!!!

Does your school have the ability to do online testing? Sounds like that's what this professor needs to do if he's worried about cheating. There are test security measures you can take to reduce the incidence of that (of course, you'll never completely eliminate it).

I use online testing with my students, and I LOVE it. It makes grading a snap compared to grading scan trons especially if you have to take two answers on a question or throw a question out completely; the regrading is done automatically for you.

The amount of work he is requiring you to do for this test is way too much. I would encourage you and your peers to complain heavily about this when you do your end of course review of this professor. That's the kind of thing that, if everyone complains, administration WILL look into and put a stop to.

Oh, and here's an example of a nitpicky prof: In college, I had a political science professor who flipped out when a student referred to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor as a tragedy. She said, "Hurricanes are tragedies. Car accidents are tragedies. But an attack on the United States IS AN ACT OF WAR!!!!!!"

Most of us just sat there and thought, "What the hell?!?"

Actually, your professor was partly right on this one.

A tragedy is a series of terrible events that occurs due to the hubris of the hero of the story. For example, in Hamlet, he is so obsessed with obtaining his revenge for the murder of his father that he completely ignores the consequences his actions have on others, with disastrous consequences.

The term has been overgeneralized to mean anything sad or horrible that happens is tragic, and here's where your professor actually went wrong.

Hurricanes are not tragic, though they are terrible. No one has control over the weather.

A car crash can be terrible if it is caused by a deliberately foolish act that is extremely dangerous; for example a family member rushing a sick person to a hospital causing a deadly crash would be tragic in the classical sense.

MLA (or what ever format's being used) wouldn't be such a pain if the citation process wasn't so specific and detailed.

MLA pretty much sucks as a citation method, IMHO. So does APA. I do like Turabian, especially since word processors make it so easy. And yeah, some of the rules just defy belief, like APA's new rule that you only use one space after a period (which is just stupid, no one else does it that way and it makes text look cluttered).

But we do have to have standards that students have to learn in order for papers to be readable by their intended audience (whether that be their professor or a journal subscriber). However, I'm not too nit picky on APA format. Oh, I'll mark the paper up, but I won't actually take too many points off for it. I want the student to learn, not get pissed off.

Well, one of those sentences involved a guy named "John." Except I didn't know John was normally spelled with an "h" so I spelled it Jon. She docked me points for spelling John incorrectly; otherwise I had a perfect score on the test.

What's really funny is that we actually had a kid named Jon (spelled that way) in our class at the time.

Then the prof was wrong to ding you on it, and I would have challenged the grade. Jon is not an incorrect spelling, it is a variant spelling. So is colour here in the US (It's the British way to spell the word color).

I had this turd of an accounting professor in college who would do "pop quizzes" on students which I (and everyone else) really hated. We had him Monday, Wednesday and Friday and if he pop quizzed us on Monday, we thought on Wednesday we would be safe, but a lot of the time he would do it on Wednesday. What a fucking asshole. I teach and I would never do that with my students. The only reason he did that crap was because it was a power trip to him and I hate that too. To this day, I abhor the word "quiz". It's a test.

That's pretty petty. I never give pop quizzes. Too much work, stresses the students, for no good productive purpose.

There was another teacher, a female grad student. I forget what class this was, it may have been an English class, and it was something that involved writing lots of multi page reports. Like everyone else, I wrote my name on my report. But this fucking bitch (without saying beforehand) failed my report because I did not put my name on EVERY page of a stapled report. WTF? She pulled that shit on everyone and we all marched down to her office and got her to change the grades.

Don't blame you; I would have done this too (march down to her office that is).

Did she tell you to use a specific citation style? They usually require something like this. But failing a student for not having their name on every page is going too far. Taking a couple point off, fine. Failing, HELL no.

One thing that made me mad about elementary school was when someone would ask the teacher the correct spelling, with them saying "Look it up in the dictionary." Well, if I dont know how to spell the word, a dictionary isn't going to be of help. You are the fucking teacher with at least a college degree and maybe a Masters. Now, again, how do you spell this fucking word (you lazy sow).

Teachers also want to teach students how to figure out something on their own. At a certain age, you need to learn how to use a dictionary.

Ah, you beat me to it.

I do this with my nursing students, both on spelling words and on giving definitions. It's not because I'm lazy. It's because they need to learn how to look this shit up for themselves. If they rely on other people to give them the answers all the time they a) won't know enough to give safe patient care and b) look like ignorant lazy jackasses.

[Glados]

I hear you on the nitpicky teachers! I am currently taking a speech class (required for all students even though I have years of experience in speaking and creating powerpoints) where the professor is on a huge power trip. She insists that there is only one very specific way to give a speech and to create a powerpoint. She forces us to follow her guidelines even when to do so is unethical. For example, we are supposed to directly question our audience about disabilities and about accommodations that they may need including calling out individuals. Her reasoning is that conveying the content of the speech is more important than maintaining the dignity and privacy of the audience. (I called her out on this and she said this directly) We have to write our speeches to have the EXACT number of points and sub-points that she wants and we have to follow a huge list of guidelines that details every minute step of the process.

She also is constantly making fun of students both past and present but expects us to be comfortable speaking about important topics.

[Rageaholic]

I just thought of another one; this one involving a psychology instructor. You see, she didn't want any slang words in the papers. Reasonable enough, right? Well, her standard of slang was much stricter than what you'd expect. She wanted you to be very literal minded in your paper. I remember getting marked down over using the word "insane" as in "this is insane". I also think I got marked down for not using variety in my word choices (what little there was left after I left out the "slang").

Keep in mind, I had already passed TWO english courses at that time and they weren't that picky. You'd think this was some English class with such high standards, but it wasn't! There's correcting badly written papers and there's telling you how to write. Her actions unfortunately fell into the latter category.

And glados, as someone who has those learning disabilities your speech prof has an issue with...



It sounds like she's setting students up to fail with such high standards and humiliating tactics.

What a bitch.