You Know What I Hate?: Bad Teachers

You know ranting has become one of those things I miss doing. You'd think an act that in my case is typically driven by anger wouldn't be so fun. I don't always have to be mad to rant, just annoyed by something.

Today that something is lazy ass teachers. This is broad because teachers can be lazy in so many ways. Those of my readers who aren't in college yet have no idea. Sure high school teachers can be annoying too but college is even worse. College professors get paid more then high school teachers and the money they're being paid with is yours. Your cash goes into their pocket and their laziness tends to piss you off more then it normally would. College is also it. Your last line of education before you go into the real world and get yourself a job. You want to learn in college so when you're not getting what you need out of a class you paid 2,500 bucks for you tend to get a little sore.

So what are some ways a teacher can annoy you? Well inconsistent directions for one. Who here has had that teacher who assigns something but never accurately explains it? Or the famous “Check the syllabus” answer when they haven't been following it the entire quarter? I want a break down of what I'm being graded on, how it's to be presented, and what expectations are. I don't want vague examples of past students work or to be told “I'll type one later”. When I hear that it says to me “not much thought has gone into creating the assignment” and you obviously pulled it out of your ass. I've had teachers do this. They want to be like a real teacher and assign homework but they put no work into structuring the class so instead they pull this assignment out of thin air. I love the blank expressions on their faces while they try and think of something. That's when I know it wasn't planned and they just made it up on the spot. With this method we have no idea what we're being graded on we just have this vague outline of what to do.

So then we ask questions. “Email me.” Okay so I do and I never get an answer. Some of them like to do this cute thing where they email you the day of class or an hour before. That's just cruel. If you can't properly create an assignment and rubric to go along with it you shouldn't be having us do it. I think all teachers should have to do their own homework before they assign it. Same with books. I can't count the times I've been assigned a shitty book and the teacher later apologized for it. “Derp sorry I should have read it first.”. Gee you think? I mean the book only cost 100 bucks. I got money to waste. Since it sucks so hard you won't be using it again which means the school will no longer be selling it or accepting buy backs. I have so many books I can't do anything with because they're worth peanuts and I refuse to sell a 100 dollar book for 5 bucks no matter how crappy it is.

You know what else gets on my nerves? When they grade papers. I swear sometimes they only read them once. I can't count how many times I've read a comment on one page such as “You should address this.” Only for me to have actually addressed it on the next page. Pay attention you lazy asses. Is it that hard to keep the pen at bay until you finish the paper? I know being a teacher at a art based college is so taxing and all. I mean we only have the easiest general ed available. I love that too. When teachers for general ed classes think they're at a university or something. I had this one teacher for Statistics who gave this speech the first day of class about how seriously he takes the subject matter and he expects us to as well. I'm sorry am I here to be a boring data annalist or a filmmaker? When push comes to shove which class do you think I care more about, this one or something actually pertaining to my major?

That's another thing my school treats us all like a dollar sign. We're a consumer school run and owned by a team of lawyers. So because I'm treated like a customer and not a student I treat them like a corporation and not a school. They don't like that very much. I actually had one teacher try and make me sign a contract that said in so many words “If I don't like this class or aspects about I'm not allowed to complain.” Sorry but if you do a shit job teaching I have every right to complain about it. I left that class pretty quickly. That teacher was obviously nuts. They also wanted us to read one book every week. I forgot I was majoring in English. It was a Science class too which was the funniest part. I'm not going to be a Biologist either. They really need to curb these general ed teachers. They go a little too crazy.

Example, we had this one teacher who accused me and my friend of copying each other. We had to write poems and we used similar rhythm schemes. The hilarious part was it was a scheme they taught us. The part that really annoyed me was they accused us in front of the entire class in a manner I personally found to not only be insulting but unprofessional. When we defended ourselves they rudely told us to shut up and wouldn't let us finish a sentence. So we complained to their boss who defended them tooth and nail and basically told us to deal with it. The boss's reason “Their a published author.” Wow so all I gotta do is get two books published and I can do and say whatever I want? Awesome! The best part is both books are pretty buried and you can't even find them on Amazon, published author my ass. The teacher taught a Creative Writing class. Part of being creative is having imagination. Besides writing poems every assignment we got after that involved writing out something that actually happened to us. I'm sorry but am I missing something here? Fiction is the most creative form of writing and you're flat out banning us from doing it? Retarded is the only word that comes to mind.

What was also retarded is how they treated us during finals. My friend and I got into it with them again. We both wrote stories about our Moms for the final assignment, which was to write a story about a dramatic event you experienced. Apparently our stories were too similar. Except in his he finds his Mom dead and mine had to do with my Mom being a loser drug addict. I see one similarity and that's a stretch. We didn't even have a similar writing style. That teacher clearly just didn't like us. I'm sure their boss, who was quick to lick their toes, told them we complained about them. I'm really waiting for the day I completely lose it and go to the dean of the entire school about some of this crap.

Speaking of I almost did once. I had a class where we were had to shoot a PSA. Our group chose to shoot it at night after class. So during class we picked up a Uhaul and when we got back our teacher scolded us like we were 10 year olds. Again this was in front of our peers and they even went as far as dropping our group leader a whole letter grade. I forgot the part where the teacher was my Mother and micromanaging me was part of their job. The stupid part was their argument for why we shouldn't have done it revolved around them giving us time to work on the project the night before. We only have class once a week. The dumb ass thought we were in their other class. Well even if we were it wouldn't make a difference, they're two separate classes and to be kept that way. Get your facts straight before chewing people out moron.

I hate that too. Chewing out the whole class because a few of us are lazy. I don't need a lecture because someone else did something stupid. Again we're not in elementary school and we're sure as hell not in boot camp. I'm here to learn and as far as I'm concerned we're all peers, teachers included. Until I see some credentials that say otherwise. I've rarely seen any work from any of my teachers. This tells me they're either embarrassed by it or they just don't think it's better then what we produce. The teachers who have shown me work have done amazing stuff and seem truly qualified to be teaching. The rest I question how extensive their knowledge is and the lack of examples proves that point in my book. It's not fair to assume someone is shit just because they can't prove otherwise but some of the things they say are completely wrong. I've proven several teachers wrong more times then I can count. My favorite is when I prove them wrong and then they turn around and take credit for my correction. Shameful really but if they want to be idiots and not fess up to it that's only going to hurt them in the long run. I stopped correcting them in hopes they will say something stupid on a job and it will reflect poorly on them.

I truly am ranting. And it's been going on for 2 pages now. If anyone has read this far I congratulate you. You probably have an entire psych profile worth the material here based on my college experience. This is just my issues with teachers I haven't even started with the school itself. That's for another day though. Thanks for reading.