It's Still Not Funny

So the problem professor remains a problem. He is still channeling Louis Black, although an admin person in the department told me that she thinks he channels Eddie Izzard too. I can sort of see that. I like Izzard but he's not that funny either five days a week, first thing in the morning. (Izzard is apparently a polyglot and did a tour in France in French, which he learned just so he could perform live in France. I admire that. I don't want to learn science from him, though.)

As I mentioned in my earlier post, I wanted to wait until the first exam to make a decision on any action that I should take about this prof or this class. Well, the first exam is here--a multiple choice, 150-question, take-home, open-book exam. I spent most of Saturday working through it. I have been keeping up with the readings and lectures and homework and I still found the exam challenging.

Having written multiple-choice exams myself (I have even received training in proper techniques for doing so), I have to say, problematic prof wrote an exam that deeply and thoroughly tests the material he presented in class. No regurgitation of factoids; you have to instead apply things you know to different situations.

Besides, I am finding the material extremely interesting. Like biochemistry, it will be very useful for me in the future.

So I am willing and able to filter Louis/Eddie out each morning. But I remain concerned about the messages this prof is sending to most of the class. He is not setting a very good example for these impressionable 20-year-olds.

I get to the class early so I can study in the quiet, dark room for half an hour or so (it's a dog-free zone for me). This means that I get to eavesdrop as everybody else arrives. About a third of the class is so intimidated that they sit in class like shocky baby birds--afraid to move or peep. Another third thinks it is all a big frat-boy laugh fest. They of course don't get it at all. And the last group is so overwhelmed by the material that they are just sort of limply hoping that through some miracle they might pass the class.

I emailed problematic prof with a rather detailed question about a couple of concepts that were confusing me. He replied in equal detail, then closed by telling me that even though he had encouraged the class to email him with questions, only one had done so: me. Well, I can see why. Shocky birdlings will be too scared of him to email, fearing what might happen. Frat boys think he is a walking joke and won't bother. And the third group, well, they are propping up the lower end of the curve and aren't the sort that talks to professors anyway.

While the material is good, the learning environment is not its equal. At the end of the term, I will very likely send letters to the department chair and possibly the dean, but now that my own initial shock has worn off, I can be more measured and hopefully more effective in what I say than if I had angrily rushed into the chair's office that first week.