I�d be feeling very vindicated, perhaps even a little smug, if I weren�t so gosh darn RELIEVED to find out that I�m not the only one in my class who�s having trouble following the tortured, convoluted crazy-train of my Paper instructor�s lectures.

I mentioned the other day how I got him to give back some credit on the test for a list of points that I would have known, had he called the requested list by the same �heading� he�d called it during his lecture (probably confusing, that sentence, but you DON�T want me to get into any more detail... trust me on this one.) So yesterday in class he was giving us a quick rundown of what would be on the final, and he was pulling stuff out of his ass, hat and thin air, so I kept interrupting him to ask about certain points and he�d look at me like I was nuts and say, �Look at your notes, it should be in your notes!�

I was starting to feel like the class idiot, because I just wasn�t understanding roughly half of what he was reviewing, when 3 other people started chiming in with questions and complaints of the same nature as mine! Particularly on the damn lists he keeps giving us. He keeps changing the heading of the lists, and to make it even more confusing, he�s got some of the same points on more than one list... he even had two lists with the same damn name! Some of us didn�t write down all the salient points on the lists, because he has a habit of giving us points 1 and 2 and then going off into a lengthy irrelevant story, sometime during which he may or may not return to the list of points without warning.

Later in the bathroom, a couple of us who had complained in class were discussing the situation and we privately agreed that he also frequently misuses words in lecture, meaning that if you write down what he actually SAYS, you run the risk of getting it wrong if he manages to come up with the correct term when he writes the test. Yesterday, he even argued with a guy in my class about the definition of �viscosity.� The correct, though simplified, definition is �the ability of a liquid to resist flowing.� It is NOT, as the teacher argued, �the ability of a liquid to flow.� A highly viscous liquid is one that RESISTS flowing. By the teacher�s definition, a highly viscous liquid should flow more readily. But he refused to admit he was wrong and basically told the student to �drop it, we�re saying the same thing, we�re just arguing over terms here...� Uh, not really, dude. It means what it means. I doubt if he�ll mark it wrong on the test if we use the correct definition, but if he does you can bet I�ll have the dictionary all up in his ass, arguing my case.

Anyway... he DID finally concede maybe there was something wrong with his teaching methods for this accelerated version of the class, since so many of us were having the same problems. (And fuck the other eight or so smart-aleck assholes in the class who GOT IT already or who just didn�t give a damn and were hoping to leave early; and hence were sitting there rolling their eyes the whole time the rest of us were begging for the clarification. I just hope they�re half as brilliant as they seem to think they are.)

So, he did us the favor of giving a more thorough review and giving more detailed answers to questions, although I could tell he wasn�t too happy about it. He seemed kinda pissed about the whole incident... but what were we supposed to do, flunk the final so as not to hurt his pride? He�s a nice guy and he DOES know a lot about paper, but as this is only the second time he�s taught the five-week class, I think he needs to come up with a more streamlined version of the lecture. I think there just isn�t enough TIME in this five-week class for all the instructor�s amusing stories about his former life as a paper buyer.

One good thing... after all that, I had to ask him about grading my midterm before I left yesterday. As mad as he was, it�s a wonder he didn�t just give me an F for spite. But not only did he adjust the points in the section of the test as promised, he also gave me credit for answers that were kinda sorta in the ballpark of what he was looking for. Sounds like a gift, and I suppose you could look at it that way. But I think it�s kind of telling that my answers on stuff we studied out of the book were all dead-on correct... it was just the stuff from lecture that I had a problem with. So thanks to his creative grading techniques, I got a much higher score than I thought I would. Happy, happy, happy!

Tonight, I have a midterm in my graphic arts class. I barely studied for this one... if he goes by the outline he gave us in review, it�s mostly stuff I knew already from my previous classes. Here�s hoping that those words are not destined to be eaten later with a side of tangy ranch sauce.

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Crappy job crap, weird neighbor, and someone whose baby I apparently want to have - 2006-05-08
Live from the dump - 2006-04-09
Kind of like a muzzle for your brain - 2006-03-29
...and then she fell ass-first into my cereal bowl - 2006-03-28
Playing catch-up - 2006-03-27

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