This shit actually happened to me.
I had a professor who bragged about having a low pass rate for his courses.
I filed a complaint against this professor who was creating a toxic learning environment by assuming every student was cheating and taking extreme measures on every exam to counter it. The material was itself already difficult enough without making it more difficult unnecessarily.
People weren’t washing out just because the material was hard, they were washing out because the material was hard and there was a professor looking over your shoulder randomly during the exams.
During classes the forced participation caused anxiety even for a military veteran like myself. Not only were your answers were evaluated in front of the entire class, the professor assessed your character as a human being as well.
The homework given in class ultimately had 2 grades: As a homework grade and as a Study Guide grade. The homework went into a 3 ring binder that also contained incomplete study material that we had to fill out ourself as well as notes from class. In theory this is a great learning tool, in practice it’s pure hell and source of incredible anxiety as the massive 3 ring binder that ended up being evaluated as a major part of your grade at the end of the semester caused fear and anxiety to care for and maintain for the 3 months of the class.
I made it through their class, but most did not. They were plenty bright, but they just couldn’t handle his abrasive and anxiety inducing teaching methods. After anonymously filing the complaint the administration decided to force the professor into retirement.
I was in my 2nd semester during lab performing an experiment when this professor snuck up behind me and told me he was retiring this semester in an angry and accusatory tone.
I just froze in place for a moment, nearly dropping my lab equipment. Then I just set it down and turned to him and congratulated him for “being in the home stretch”
He just smiled and said “Almost there” and walked away…
As soon as he left I almost fainted, fuck that was close.
I would’ve probably straight up laughed and said “About fucking time you old fuck”, and then immediately regret it, lol. In my experience, professors and teachers are THE thing that makes or breaks any class. They can turn the most enjoyable and interesting classes into living nightmares like this, but hey can also transform the lamest and most terrible of classes into the single most fascinating thing the universe for a couple hours. A good teacher is never the one that knows the most shit or is right the most times, its always the ones that genuinely care about teaching and guiding their students. Any teacher that fails to fulfill that basic mandate, simply should not be allowed to teach (and we need seriously reform the education systems to give teachers the space to actually care, but that is a different discussion).
My favorite professors are the ones that can take an hour long lecture and make it feel like 5 minutes, leaving the students feeling sad that it’s over while they look forward to the next one
One of my favorite professors literally convinced me to like learning math and pursue a degree in physics in a single conversation by doing nothing more than being a huge fucking nerd about diffraction lenses when he saw me goofing off with one in lab instead of paying attention. The lenses had nothing to do with class and we never did any math, and yet instead of snapping “eyes front” at me like most teachers, he derailed teaching the actual course for no other reason than to talk about something we both just thought was cool as shit. He cared more about teaching me what I wanted to learn than anything else and, as an accidental result, 180 my entire academic career.
That and we both agree that canned peas are an abomination sent from the depths of hell entirely unfit for consumption by any living creature.
It’s great when a professor can be inspirational
I had to learn math out of desperation. Unbeknownst to me because I had terrible math teachers, I had a natural talent for math.
It wasn’t until I joined the military after high school that the military discovered my math abilities on the ASVAB and put me in a job that required a lot of math.
Every class for my job had an intense amount of math that gained significant difficulty with each passing grade. It was either pass the class or get reclassed to a guaranteed terrible job not of your choosing.
Grinding out math became my only focus for 10-12 hours a day out of fear of severe penalty
Made me wish I had decent math teachers back in school, I felt like I was operating with a handicap
