Rant: About to leave my four year college

[joegreen]

I had a teacher that liked to be called doctor or professor because she said it took a long time to get her PhD which is fine. Now I just call every teacher professor and don't use there actual name. Works for me. Had a teacher once that hated men. Just had to get on her good side to get a good grade. If you switch colleges because of her then she Wins. I would suck it up and finish.

 

[Skippy722]

I hated schooling so much, I became a machinist instead of a nurse like I was planning... take a bunch of BS classes, paying a ton of money in the process, to then *maybe* be accepted into a nursing program ain't for me.

With that being said, BS it till you're free with your diploma is what I'd do, and that's how I got through high school. Write and say what they want to hear, then go on to do bigger and better things. You're clearly smart enough to separate complete lunacy from reality

 

[555]

Disagree with "playing the game" statement. You call a professor, professor. Mistake made, move on.
Make an appointment with the professor and ask for help. Is there a paper that got an "A" that you could read? Show an interest in improving your grade.
What grade do you think you should have received? Ask if you can write the paper again. I don't know what the subject was, but did your paper meet the other parameters? Footnotes, bibliography, punctuation, grammar and of course, number of pages. You don't have to answer those questions here but perhaps examine your own view of matters.
Do I sound like an a-hole? Sorry. You can't avoid everything that disagrees with you. You never know what's going on in someone's head. Don't engage in the headtrips of others because then you create your own. Even if everything you say is true, are you really going to drop out over one paper? Perspective.
As Dennis Leary once said "life sucks, get a helmet".
We have all been there, it'll be OK.

 

[FordBroncoVWJeta]

Originally Posted by 555
Disagree with "playing the game" statement. You call a professor, professor. Mistake made, move on.
Make an appointment with the professor and ask for help. Is there a paper that got an "A" that you could read? Show an interest in improving your grade.
What grade do you think you should have received? Ask if you can write the paper again. I don't know what the subject was, but did your paper meet the other parameters? Footnotes, bibliography, punctuation, grammar and of course, number of pages. You don't have to answer those questions here but perhaps examine your own view of matters.
Do I sound like an a-hole? Sorry. You can't avoid everything that disagrees with you. You never know what's going on in someone's head. Don't engage in the headtrips of others because then you create your own. Even if everything you say is true, are you really going to drop out over one paper? Perspective.
As Dennis Leary once said "life sucks, get a helmet".
We have all been there, it'll be OK.

No you don't sound like an A hole. I'm just frustrated with this teacher and tired of this campus. She didn't give me any comments on the paper besides the Ms part and it was older than 15 years. No other explanations why. I'm not going to drop completely out of college. I was thinking of just finishing the semester then leaving this one. Go back to the CC and finishing the associates degree there. Im a Sophomore.

 

[ET16]

Stick it out. It's only one teacher. If you think she's been unprofessional, tell someone higher up.

The worst thing is to quit and be left with debt and no degree.

 

[BMWTurboDzl]

Originally Posted by FordBroncoVWJeta
background: At the beginning of the current 2018-19 school year I transferred to a more prestigious (for Kansas anyways) 4 year college from my community college. One of the only reasons I wanted to do it was because this college is probably the most respected criminal justice college in the state.

Well i'm tired of the campus BS. Every time I go to class the professor talks about racism, abortion,PETA, BLM ,or how Donald Trump misspelled something (she has a full blow case of TDS). Pretty much everything that doesn't have to do with the classes. Yet, I have never seen any of it. The professor talks about how everyone is marginalized besides white males.

Well today I get an email from her because she was upset that I called her Ms. in one of her papers. I have never had this problem before. No one has EVER called me out for trying to be polite. This the direct quote from her email. About the Assignment.
Quote
Please don't use Ms.

I understand that in other contexts it may be a term of respect, but for people who have earned a PhD, it feels less so. I would prefer Dr. (name) or Professor (name), or honestly, even just (name) is better.

As for this assignment, the materials were to have been from the last 15 years.
Ended up getting a D on this. Yet she never said what I did wrong besides it wasn't from the last 15 years, even though I still can't find that requirement from the assignment page.

I'm thinking about leaving it and just getting my 2 yr degree from the community college and being done with school. I'm starting to think college isn't what it was intended to be.

Am I in the wrong here?

I'm trying my hardest to keep this thread appropriate for BITOG.



My advice is for you to develop thicker skin. You're going to let one professor run you out of university? Cry me a f-ing river.

 

[JLTD]

Originally Posted by E365
Drop out of the college just because you don't like one teacher?! I'm a big fan of "Cooperate To Graduate".

That's just life. You have to put up with people you don't like. Keep your head down, power-through and move on with your life.


^This. Part of college education is learning how to deal with, and either work with or overcome, people like this.

In your place, I would go to her, apologize for the "Ms" up front, say you didn't mean anything by it (even though you might have).

Then, bring out the assignment sheet and politely ask, "Doctoring" or "Professoring" her as you do so, if she could show you where it says the information has to be within 15 years.

If it brings your grade up it'll be worth it. At the very least you'll find out her requirements for future assignments, and hopefully you can avoid her for future classes.

 

[JLTD]

Originally Posted by joegreen
I had a teacher that liked to be called doctor or professor because she said it took a long time to get her PhD which is fine. Now I just call every teacher professor and don't use there actual name. Works for me. Had a teacher once that hated men. Just had to get on her good side to get a good grade. If you switch colleges because of her then she Wins. I would suck it up and finish.


This too!

 

[FordBroncoVWJeta]

Originally Posted by BMWTurboDzl

My advice is for you to develop thicker skin. You're going to let one professor run you out of university? Cry me a f-ing river.

The best I can do is a creek.

 

[Sayjac]

Originally Posted by Eric Smith
Playing the game.. I like it! Sayjac nailed that....
Thanks. Being a sexagenarian now, I've heard it referenced many times, been told it by colleagues and superiors alike. Of course, there are always ethical and moral limits. But beyond that I've found it a good thing to keep in mind. As for its meaning, this one works well enough.

 

[Imp4]

Originally Posted by FordBroncoVWJeta

Well today I get an email from her because she was upset that I called her Ms. in one of her papers. I have never had this problem before. No one has EVER called me out for trying to be polite. This the direct quote from her email. About the Assignment.
Quote
Please don't use Ms.

I understand that in other contexts it may be a term of respect, but for people who have earned a PhD, it feels less so. I would prefer Dr. (name) or Professor (name), or honestly, even just (name) is better.

I'm thinking about leaving it and just getting my 2 yr degree from the community college and being done with school. I'm starting to think college isn't what it was intended to be.

Am I in the wrong here?

I'm trying my hardest to keep this thread appropriate for BITOG.

It's standard decorum on a college campus to address the instructor as 'Dr' or 'Professor'.
It looks like the instructor did a reasonably good job of trying to teach you that.
You seem inordinately unwilling to learn the lesson, and there is a lesson to be learned here, no matter how well intentioned your original remark to her.

If you can't hack addressing the instructor properly, especially when she appears to have done a reasonable job of correcting and informing you, there's likely a lot more stuff you also won't be able to handle.
Your background information you've provided is also highly political.
If you can't hack being around people whose ideas clash with your world view, there's likely a lot of other things you won't be able to cope with either.

You could address these issues by quitting the institution like you've suggested. This would be the easy route.

Alternatively, you could take a fresh look at how you approached the whole situation and maybe realize that you could stretch your perspective and learn and grow, but also realize that this option may require that you cast your assumptions and preconceived notions about the world aside. Likely much more difficult, but potentially much more rewarding.

Good luck!!!
You'll need it!!!

 

[Donald]

Get your 4 yr degree. Bite your lip for this one teacher and don't sign up for any more classes with her.

College degree is always a good idea if you have the will to spend the time and finish.

 

[stockrex]

If prof talking about trivial stuff like that bother you bro, Criminal Justice might not be your cup of tea?

 

[FordBroncoVWJeta]

Originally Posted by stockrex
If prof talking about trivial stuff like that bother you bro, Criminal Justice might not be your cup of tea?

Politics doesn't bother me a bit in the right setting. But it does bother me in the classroom setting AND if someone has a conservative view she shuts them down. That I have a problem with. I don't pay thousands of dollars to spend 3/4 of the class talking about political issues. If I wanted to discuss politics on campus I would have gone into politics, not CJ.

 

[JustN89]

I just graduated from Oklahoma State in 2017 and know the frustration that can come with being of a different political mindset than a vast majority of professors. Here's some advise:

1. I always defaulted to the most respectful title I knew of for my professors. I called my professors with their PhD "Dr. So-and-so" unless they told me differently. Many didn't, but I got close enough to some of them to be on a first-name basis.

2. There's something that can be said for just putting your head down and pushing through it. You're not going to change any minds, so why make your life harder? The best advice I can give you it to take notes in class and when professors/students branch off down unrelated, politically-charged discussions, just use that time to go back and review your notes. Added bonus is that it means less time you need to spend studying later.

3. I will be the first to say that we have become an entirely too thinned skinned as a society, with people finding a way to be upset over the smallest of things. While this has become a notorious characteristic among a certain group of people, everyone can suffer from this from time to time. In response to the email you received, they weren't necessarily wrong (although they definitely could've chosen a different tact when addressing it), so I'd simply apologize and move on. If you feel like it's impacting your grades, arrange a time to meet with that professor and have them discuss with you why you got the grade that you got. If you still don't feel like you deserved the grade that you got after discussing it with them, you can challenge grades through the school.

Hopefully this helps. Like I said, I understand your situation as I've been there myself many times. Doing the above helped me and hopefully it will help you too. Best of luck.

 

[thooks]

OP:

Sounds like you have "got woke" in your age group. Congrats.


Thanks for recognizing what most higher education Institutions are- indoctrination camps.

 

[thooks]

Originally Posted by stockrex
If prof talking about trivial stuff like that bother you bro, Criminal Justice might not be your cup of tea?



State sponsored education has no right to inflict politics Into the classroom

 

[SwampSurvivor]

It's definitely a bit pretentious for a professor to demand to be referred to as "doctor", but I can definitely understand the desire to be addressed as "professor". In theory, they have worked hard and built an exceptional career in whichever field they are teaching and have made the decision to share their experiences and knowledge with others .. and possibly provide research in the field if it's a research university.

What career prospects does one have in criminal justice? It seems to be popular around here, almost all colleges seem to offer some sort of program in it.

 

[Bud]

Life is tough. Sounds like you may be too sensitive. Thicker skin will help you throughout life.

 

[maverickfhs]

Originally Posted by SR5
Originally Posted by E365
Drop out of the college just because you don't like one teacher?! I'm a big fan of "Cooperate To Graduate".

That's just life. You have to put up with people you don't like. Keep your head down, power-through and move on with your life.


I agree, a life skill is to put up with and work with people you don't like. It doesn't get any better in the outside world, and it doesn't get any better in the military. But it is also never as bad as you think, except maybe in the military where they can get you killed.

Learn what you can learn, quietly ignore what you think to be rubbish, be true to yourself on the inside, but pass all your exams for the outside world to see. Then when it's your turn to be in charge, make sure you do a better job than they did.

Both of these are excellent posts