Well, it's almost here...the end of another semester, a time to reflect on time spent, money spent, and energy expended...and of course I have a few things to say about it.
First: I find the lack of continuity in the quality of my university instruction to be frustrating at best and absolutely tragic at worst. I understand that some of my instructors are literal geniuses in their chosen fields, but I find that unfortunately that does not automatically translate into these instructors being able to teach. It is one thing to know the material inside out, and another to be able to get a class of 20 people engaged in it. It pains me to witness first-hand that the money I am spending on my education is, in some cases, being thrown away due to substandard instruction. Gone are the days of every class having something tangible in it that makes it exciting or mentally stimulating, and the days of trying to decipher genius-level babble that emanates from certain instructors mouths have arrived. I find it troubling that university professors are not observed by administration or their peers, and that their only review of their progress comes from student surveys that are filled out at the end of the semester and are not an at all accurate depiction of the professor's teaching ability for a number of reasons.
I expected upon entering university that I would be required to do a lot of self-teaching in the sense that I should be reading and researching material on my own time and outside the purview of the class syllabus. However, I did not expect that in select classes I would be paying the government for me to teach myself fully...I am not a teacher or any sort, and it is not my job to initiate and lead class discussion, or to engage other students to the texts that we are assigned, or to basically teach the class in order to fully attain a level of my own understanding.
Oh well, I realize that not every class with be like this, and that I have met, and will continue to meet, wonderful instructors who will challenge me and teach me in a way that allows me to leave the class with a much more enriched idea of the subject that when I started, but that isn't a reality quite yet.
Anyway, that's it for now
Still Frustrated in St. Paul
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