We Help a Charging New Member of the Family To Get Some Perspective on Student Evaluations - Don't Let Them Interrupt Your Life

I am a graduate student who is just about finished my ph.d program and trying desperately to justify to myself that academia is a worthwhile endeavor. Along with all the stress and pain of comps, languages, and writing my dissertation I am also teaching undergraduate courses and attempting to develop a pedagogy that aligns with my intellectual work.

The work I do as a graduate student is hard and difficult and challenges me on a daily basis to make living my chosen life feel worthwhile - but it is teaching that really challenges me to evaluate my chosen life-path. I get good student evaluations - no, forget the false modesty here, I get great evaluations - but all it took was one to crush me. One student who didn't "get me" and my teaching style and I find myself becoming bitter and angry towards all of them. One embittered and disgruntled student evaluation and I find myself leaning towards a of life of uncaring and unengaged pedagogy.

My intellectual work and my "socio-political" beliefs led me to pursure a pedagogy that attempts to break down the barriers between student and teacher, that acknowledges the 'cut and paste' generations attitude toward education as edu-tainment, and to create a classroom where university students no longer felt like merely a number or a dollar sign in the eyes of administration.

And, for 98% of my student it works and it made me feel like I was doing something that actually mattered (unlike writing my dissertation - which feels like an excercise in futility and technicity). But, all it took, was one student to write into ratemyprofessors.com with a snarky comment about me to make me question my choice to be a university prof. It's not even that I disagreed with his/her evaluation (I am always open to critique) but that they did it in such an underhanded and oblique manner.

I understand that in a system that makes them merely a 'cog in the machine' their only option is to 'attack' the system through an anonymous system of evaluation. I know that this is there attempt to empower themselves and to fight back against the inhumanizing matrix of the postmodern university which ignores their real concerns and issues. I know this. But, it still hurt (yes, profs are human and have feelings too) and made me question my choice to continue in this life-world.

When I found this site, and read the comments posted there by students and teachers, it made me realize that a) I am not alone and b) it is not the end-all-and-be-all to receive a bad internet evaluation. So, I just wanted to say "thank you" - while many people may see your website as merely a 'revenge' site (getting back at those students who bash us online) I found a site where I could read comments and reactions by people in the same life-world as I am and get some well-needed perspective about the nature of student evaluations.

A Fan Letter For All Of Us

To all the dear disgruntled professors,

I dislike being in classes with the same sorts of students you dislike having in classes. I love to learn and when I am in class I want to squeeze out every last drop of knowledge and understanding. I'm the girl who will stretch you to the limits of your expertise and ask questions you can't answer. Then I will go to the library, find the answer, and tell you after the next class.

When I hear something on NPR that happens to be in your area of interest, I will email you a link to the audio file. I love having professors with whom I can do this, even better are professors who will reciprocate this extra-curricular learning.

I can appreciate that you feel underappreciated, because I believe that you are. I realize that for most of you, this blog is about venting frustrations when they seem to dominate, but that you also realize that the frustrations are not all there is to your profession. Things are the same here on the student side. Sometimes I need to vent about professors who slack, but in general, I love being in school. Professors are people, too. I've grown out of the "teacher as slavedriver" phase that dominated high school. I suppose I bypassed the "professor as servant" phase of college, the phase in which so many of your least favorite students seem stuck. I'm in the "professor as mentor and partner in learning" phase. You are the expert; I remain cogniscent of this, yet I am confident that I have something to offer you, as well.

I guess this is just to say, I do appreciate you. I am grateful that so many people value education so much as to make it their lives' work, appreciated or not. I hope you know plenty of students who appreciate you and remind you that what you do is worthwhile.

From a 22 year old college student who loves you.

Another Student Who Thinks Getting Out of College Without Thinking is the Whole Goal, Someone Who Wants to 'Receive' Education

I went to college and was ready to take my major the first day of freshman year. Then, to add to my disappointment, the core curriculum was easier than high school. Yeah, that’s right, it was. But something else made me feel used, manipulated and even a bit angry: One day I realized I was a member of a captive audience to a tenured polemic. Furthermore I realized I didn’t care about how much Amerikkka sucks.

As a student, I am paying money to go to school so I can receive education related to my career. But, I am required to pay and work for 60 credit hours of nonsense before I can even begin my career-related studies More specifically, the liberal arts core curriculum racket was an unnecessary waste of my youth and treasure.

In my evaluation of my experience at college, professors who taught required social sciences courses were being paid to indoctrinate students into critical theory. But, I do not pay tuition as to legitimize and aid a revolutionary socialist intelligentsia. SO, When I was required to take classes unrelated to my career that required me to accept a particular dogma in order to 'pass,' I was quite surly and intentionally 'out to lunch.'

There was no reason to pay attention.

A Reader Implores Us to Go "Old School," And Sends A Sample In About His Own Students

FRU
2 chili peppers for looks, 1 okra (think slimy center) for slick talking, 0 for ability or work ethic.
Sign up FRU for your next class. He won’t be in class often because he has a wave to catch. You too can be addressed as “Professor, Dude!” when he stops by your office to discuss the hot chick he just saw in the hallway. He’ll be sure to yell across campus when he sees you (thereby raising your coolness quotient with whoever is with him at the moment) and promise to get that paper in but the end result will be one too many waves that pushed FRU into the sand head first. The forces of nature will cost him what little brain power he had to start the semester.

KOR
1 chili pepper, 0 okra, 1 for humor, 0 for ability
KOR will be your best friend if you enjoy word play or bad jokes. She giggles all the time leading you to think you may have a future on Comedy Central. That is, however, the limit of her expressiveness in class or during office hours. No grasp on subject matter. No ability to converse other than in giggles.

TTO
1 chili pepper, 0 okra, 2 for ability, ½ for follow through.
Sign up TTO if you are doing an independent study class. He will show up the first class to collect the syllabus, and the last class to turn in the papers. In between he will show up unannounced in your office (with boyfriend/girlfriend (usually 1 chili)) or phone to excuse himself from scheduled office hours. He can provide a running list of his extensive activities none of which have anything to do with his work for your class. Unable to relate school to life.

We Get a Terrific Post from a Recent Grad from the Midwest, and She's on the Culture Tip - Go Get 'Em

I stumbled over Rate Your Students on a grad student's blog and was immediately fascinated by all the rants. Of course, how could students be so stupid? Do the lazy fibbing students really think that a professor with a PhD will buy their lies and bullshit? Many do, and most just don't care. I have to admit that I have been that student in some of my courses, although I don't lie. I'm just forthcoming on how much I don't care about the course, which may or may not be worse. You be the judge.

However, as much as I should side with the students on how shitty some professors are (and really there are some), I sympathize more with professors on how shitty today's students are. I've always valued my education despite being the occassional lazy student. For one, I'm 2 generations from illiteracy. Secondly, I'm also the first person in my family to go to college. And thirdly, the degree was paid by me, so I better get something out of it. So, I am baffled at how many people just want to get an A for no work at all and bitch & moan when professors don't want to give it to them. I'm also angry at how some students blatantly disrespect professors and their field of work.

For example, there's a requirement at my school that students must take a class on Eastern and Western civilizations and/or a minority in the U.S. Having earned a minor in ethnic studies, I had to take many of those courses beyond the one course each requirement. Most of these general requirement courses are really easy. I mean the professors spoon feed you the information and a decent sized chunk is based on discussion. Basically, you just regurgitate information on your quiz and you'll get an A. A 3rd grader can get an A. But noooo, it's wayyyy too much information to swallow. I mean like my hand is cramping, I can't take notes that fast. I might chip a freaking nail. And who cares about the history of minorities anyways? I'm diverse, I mean I have like one black soroity sister and my second cousin is married to a Mexican, doesn't that count? A lot of white students thinly veil their indifference and general resentment for having to take the course in a pathetic attempt to be politically correct. It may not be your history, but it is important and it matters.

So please don't text message your roommate while the professor is talking about white mobs burning Chinatowns in the late 19th century. Plus, I've sat through 12 years (grammar school and high school) of white/ eurocentric history, so you could at least sit through one semester on somebody else's history and look like you give a shit. And I shouldn't blame just the white students either. Minority students slack off, too. When a course touches on others' histories, they fall asleep. But when it touches on their history, suddently they're awake and interested. They're disrespectful, too.

I guess all I can say is: Thank God, I'm not going into academia.

Old Press

In the first rush of this blog, we had a ton of press coverage: NY Times, LA Times, Chronicle, countless college papers, etc. We've posted flava from a lot of those things, but here's a piece that an interested reader noted we'd not ever linked or featured. Thanks, Paula.

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The Baruch University Ticker
The professors rate the students now
By: Ayesha Ajaz
Issue date: 2/6/06

Doing the rounds on the World Wide Web these days is a backlash to RateMyProfessors.com, aptly named Rate My Student.

This Web log gives professors slammed on RateMyProfessors (RMP) a chance to retaliate against their students. Professors, as it turns out, need to vent their feelings too.

The site at Blogspot.com is maintained by an anonymous faculty member, who refused to reveal his identity to several state newspapers. The Professor, as he prefers to be called, receives more than 200 posts a day from professors all over the United States and Canada griping about their students.

The Professor revealed that he took this action when a colleague was ranked poorly on RMP. "He was a great teacher with a family and received slanderous and homophobic comments," he said. "He was embarrassed and lost a little of his spirit."

But does posting smart put-downs anonymously offer catharsis? Apparently it does to some professors, who find relief in pointing out to their brain-dead students that even though they dream of "being destined for great things," they are pretty much destined for working at the Laundromat.

Some professors went the length of using a ranking system. Unfortunately that included the criterion of hotness.

Most of the posts are hilarious, mainly because they do ring true. Consider this one gripe from a professor in California to a student called R:

"Dead grandmother? I saw 'Ferris Bueller's Day Off' when you were probably still in utero. In fact, I was voted 'Most Likely to Become Ferris Bueller' my senior year in high school. At least try to be original. I get 17 dead grandmothers every term. Try a dead step-godparent next time, and maybe I might believe you."

One Canadian professor made three lists of students that "make it all worthwhile," the students he "does not love so much," and students that make him laugh. Among the last category were the sleepers, the nose pickers, the "what did he say" brigade and some others. In the end he writes "Thanks, I feel much better now."

"If students are allowed to rate their professors, professors should be allowed to rate their students," Rija Rashid, a junior at Baruch commented. "It would be cool if professors actually had to pick students for their classes. That way students would work harder to get good rankings from professors."

Not all ratings on RYS are bad. Many professors have an insight into students and they can see potential where sometimes students can not. One professor from Santa Fe had this to say to one of his students: "Why won't you just tell those friends of yours to get lost. If they don't want you to go to college, then how can you think they are really watching your back? You are a smart kid, too smart to stay in the life your friends seem to be stuck in. Keep striving. Keep working. This place is working for you, and the benefits are going to be lifelong!"

Make no mistakes, professors do not take RMP lightly. Many students will agree that professors more and more often make references to their ratings on the Web site on their first day in class. Most of these ratings do not reflect the truth; a student who slacked in class and received a bad grade will rate the teacher poorly. If a slacker thinks he duped the teacher, he will rate the teacher as an "easy A", which is unfortunately one of the key phrases that students look for when previewing professors.