Sometimes being a libertarian brings on some resentment or contempt from our contemporaries, mostly in the academic field, but also sometimes in the work field (such as working a heavily unionized job). Just the other day I discovered that I was failing the infamous “English 1A” writing course, despite having done all of the assignments to a level of quality I was proud of. The instructor esteems himself a “good” writer, and chides my peers and I for our lack of knowledge on the science of literature. Often he would go on hour long diatribes on the failures of the high school system, while, of course lifting up the beautiful success that is the American higher education system that he is part of. I would often speak up against this fellow when I couldn’t take any more, but he did not like it much. On one occasion I brought up that of the two hours and forty five minutes of class, he only spent a grand total of five to ten minutes actually covering the class material. The rest he spent talking politics or news. To give you a perspective on what this class is like, Fast Food Nation was required reading.
Recently I have been having health problems, that aside from my general dislike of attending that class, and decided to work independently, I turned in all of the assignments (missed a few minor quizzes) and essays and thought I would be okay. How harsh a grader could he be? I sent an e-mail telling the instructor of my current situation and when he replied “You have a 5-10 percent chance of passing,” it made no sense to me. The only specific incident of failure he brought up was that I had turned in an assignment early, without a peer reviewed rough draft! The horror! The only things I can think of is that he A, didn’t like my writing style, B, was a structure conformist, or C, didn’t like my content. Either way, it comes as a shock as this is the first class I have failed in college. I requested if I could be dropped instead of receiving a final grade, I would rather take it over than receive an F, but knowing him he probably delights in having power over others. As he said to another student who was only a few credits from her BA, “Your life is in my hands.”
I am not sure if he disliked me for political reasons, character issues, or what, but it perturbs me.
Lol, I remember that. We received a copy of the federal budget from 2008 and went around and decided what we would cut or increase, after which he went down the list and questioned the class (raise your hand if you want to raise this, keep it the same, cut it), and everyone was all bewildered that I wanted to cut education and energy (along with everything else, of course), teacher was like “Ah, your quite the Jeffersonian” and I suspect he was a libertarian anyhow.
Not really as bad as my high school economics class, which actually had “Why does the free market require regulation?” on the final as a multiple choice question, suffice to say “It doesn’t” was not an answer.
I usually just own my uni professors with logic and statistics and call them out on fallacies they commit, point out things like the total costs added via UAW to each GM produced car, hidden unemployment rates, and the like, I actually did a presentation on ending the fed in my college composition class that seemed to convince my run-of-the-mill liberal professor just how much of a failure it is.
don’t they need solid evidence of why you got this grade or that? if they drop you several grades without justification you should have a right to appeal I would have thought, and potentially embarrass this fellow even?
I’ve generally have had problems with English teachers, and practically cussed out my teacher Junior year for not having a clue what she was doing. I have not taken any English classes in college so far (besides creative writing which I dropped immediately).
The film Finding Forrester comes to mind when I hear about English teachers who can’t do their job. You have someone who’s book didn’t get the Pulitizer prize (and didn’t rewrite it) teaching other people about literature. I picture most high school teachers on a bigger scale. Couldn’t make it in writing so now they are teaching in government schools to kids who generally could care less.
I have had probems with english teachers in the past, most of them are not worth wasting time on when you realize how abysmal their “intellectual” qualities actually are, not to mention they are extremely arrogant and hold their head up high in class.
My economics professor thinks I’m a crackpot because I consider myself an Austrian, yet his whole class revolves around the Keynesian Revolution. How paradoxical can education get these days? It would be comical if all that money wasn’t being poured into tutions, now I think of it more as a tragicomedy. It’s hilarious but at the same time very,very depressing.
I think a good way to bring some humility to these people would be to subject them to actual market processes. They don’t have to worry about pleasing their customers.