Published 2009-12-16T00:00:00Z”/>
Delaine Moore
<strong>Professors receive an “F”</strong>
I paid more than $2,000 this semester to get an education and the only two classes I learned from were run by students. The amount of quality education seems to be falling even faster than tuition is rising.
At the beginning of the semester I was relieved that my two lower division classes were going to be a cinch. Although this made more time for my major classes, the lack of motivation and direction from these professors have made it impossible to learn anything and my GPA for this semester will show for it.
After recently bombing the oral part of my Spanish final, my teacher mentioned that I was “obviously struggling in the subject” and she “didn’t know where I got lost in the semester.”
Well, I know where I got lost. The test was the first time the professor made us actually speak the language. Before, she had used the class time to tell us how “the cartoons in our textbook should be more attractive because “Snow White’ is a cartoon and she is pretty.” Or she went off on long tangents &- sometimes taking up 20 minutes of a 50 minute class &- talking about her day or general likes and dislikes.
Her lessons generally consisted of reading directly from the book, or watching a Spanish movie with English subtitles. When she did write on the board or provide us with in-class work, which was rare, it was usually riddled with mistakes.
Something needs to be done about the falling standards universities have for professor performance. Before I went into this class, I could carry on a decent conversation with a native speaker. Now I can barely form a sentence.
This is not because I did not keep up with the work but because there was no work to keep up on &- and the fact that as a class, we were not required to speak the language.
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger endorsed the Put the Kids First Act in 2005 to change state tenure laws in grades K-12. However, change needs to occur at the higher education level.
Every semester we fill out professor evaluation forms, but are those really taken into consideration? I know this professor has had failing reviews for years and many students avoid taking a class with her if possible. But why should we have to avoid professors or suffer through meaningless classes? We are the paying customers here.
I support teachers unions and tenure laws that give protection to their job security. But all professors should still have to live up to university teaching standards and tenure should reflect students’ needs as well.
Delaine Moore can be reached at<a href= “javascript:void(location.href=’mailto:’+String.fromCharCode(102,101,97,116,117,114,101,115,101,100,105,116,111,114,64,116,104,101,111,114,105,111,110,46,99,111,109)+’?subject=re%3A%20Reality%20unplugged’)”>[email protected]</a>
