Starting Over

Had started writing an article, but then the computer crashed, the mother in law fell down went boom, the phone rang, etc. etc... so now I get to start again. The story of my life! Chaos ...gotta love it.

ANYWAY ...what I had been writing about was the end of L.C.'s comment to my post from earlier today, i.e. "Adult learners make committed and extraordinary students."

As a teacher, I agree...I love teaching so-called mature students, for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that they are the ones who are most likely to challenge me and in the process motivate me to continually improve my skills as a teacher. They're also usually the ones who are the most committed to their education; they and their families are making a lot of sacrifices to make the school thing work, and they are not inclined to muck about and waste it. So they do the preparation I ask them to do, they do their homework, they ask questions, they ask for extra help when its needed, and they are really happy to be there - I don't have to make attendance an issue for them, as they'll show up regardless.

They also tend to have more life experience than the younger folk do - so they're able to put what we're studying in context more easily, and their contributions to the class are a benefit to all.

As a student, I can say that not all teachers are so happy to have mature students (like me, anyway) in their classes - I've run into a few that would have loved to see the back of me - but then I tend to be a ~tad~ on the demanding side. I like to learn - and if I'm paying to learn and I'm NOT learning ... I'm not inclined to waste my time.  I've only run into one prof that was SO incompetent (and arrogant) that I actually made a point of making him look the fool in front of class .... and even that was his fault.

Shouldn't have asked the question if he didn't want to know the answer!

It was fairly early in the semester and he had already established himself as a jerk. One day, he asked a loaded question, and none of us were willing to play along and have him make us look stupid - no matter which way we answered, we knew that he would say that he'd meant the opposite scenario. Finally, he centered me out and said (rudely) "You always have an opinion; you answer it." So I said "Well, if you mean in this case, then blah blah blah, but if you are referring to that, then...."   He was obviously irked and the class twittered at my having disarmed his bomb - and he was angered, and yelled at all of us to "Shut up!"   He went on at  length berating us all, as if we were a bunch of naughty 10 year olds, and eventually I got up and walked out of the classroom - and didn't go back until the day of the mid term, at which point he asked me why I was there. I told him that I intended to write the midterm exam and he said that he thought I'd dropped the course since I never came to class. I said that no, I intended to complete the assignment and 2 exams and get the credit.

"Well" he asked, "Why aren't you coming to class then?"

So ...I answered him. "Because you're an arrogant son of a b----, and I don't like you."

My classmates loved it - he didn't.

I got an 84 or thereabouts for the course; on the final exam, he loaded it so that I couldn't possibly get 100% by including questions where the correct answer had to be worded exactly as it was in class (anyone who didn't attend automatically got 0 even if they  knew the actual material, which I did). But he couldn't dock me too badly on the business plan which was worth 70% of the final mark for the course.

How I wish I could have been there when he marked it!

One of the things that we had to include in the business plan were letters of support for the plan from business people. Knowing that the marking was largely subjective, and that he would NOT be inclined to mark me fairly, I hedged my bets. I can just imagine the look on his face when he opened my plan to find that my first letter of (glowing) support was from his boss.

Bet it hurt, giving me that 88%!