Anything But Me

My business teacher is a fucking moron. I have such a difficult time dragging myself to that class and, when I do, I can barely stay awake. First of all, the classroom has about 400 students, so the room dynamics are horrible. If you're sitting near the back, all you have is this tiny-looking teacher in the front talking for three hours about the business world. He is also a really horrible communicator who does absolutely nothing to make the material interesting.

So, here is where my problem comes in. He does these Powerpoint slides each class, and he tries to make some of them available to us online so that we can use them as study aids. That's really a good thing to have. Now, of course, since the teacher is so boring and the class is so big, he actually has major discipline problems. People are talking and not paying attention. I even saw two girls watching a TV show or movie of some kind of an iBook last night. Of course, he gets pissed because people are not listening to him. I was planning on going home after the break anyway, but right before he announces that he has changed his mind and will not be making the slides available to us because we have not been attentive and that hopefully this will improve concentration in the second part of the class.

Now, this is where this "anything but me" mentality comes in. Or, as I had written in an earlier entry, the blame game. Essentially, this teacher refuses to believe or consider the fact that he might actually be the problem, and not us. If we're falling asleep, doodling in our books, and generally just there in case he kind of drops a bomb and says something very crucial, then it's his teaching methods that are flawed.

It also ties in to the dislike I have of teachers who take attendance or, as this guy does, has problems with discipline. It's a really good indicator of just how well you're doing, in fact. But this guy is far too arrogant to believe he could be the problem. I have classes at 8:30 am which I have to wake up at 6 for, and yet the classes are so engaging that I drag myself to class no matter what because I know it will end up being interesting, challenging, and that the teacher will always present material in a passionate manner. Attendance has not dropped at all in this class, and is packed all the time. In my business class, people often show up for the first 15mins just to get a preview of what will be on the menu, if it is useful, and then just walk out once the guy actually starts his lecture. People also just get fed up and often walk out halfway through. Even more people will just leave during the break. Well, this fucker probably just thinks the students are flawed, uninterested, and determined to fail. If you don't properly engage people or interest them, of course they're going to leave. This guy just doesn't get it and he thinks that because he tries, he deserves our respect and admiration. On the contrary, any teacher who ends up having attendance or discipline problems in his class is probably just a fucking horrible teacher, or he covers material in such an inappropriate way that people don't feel they're missing out by skipping classes from time to time.