Awkwardsauce!

So, there has been a lot of hoo-ha and to-do about my math class this term. It's supposed to be the "easy" math credit for kids who can't do math (i.e. me). Except that, well, it wasn't.

There were many factors leading to this conclusion, but a lot of it I'm sure has to do with the fact that our professor has never taught this class before. I'm guessing it's probably a lot different teaching math to kids who suck at math than it is teaching math majors, or at least people who are somewhat mathematically inclined.

Anyway, the culmination of this all has been a series of angry emails circulated among members of the class, a meeting between some students and the head of the math department, and a petition to have the last chapter removed from the final exam.

I've mostly stayed out of this, because honestly, I'm not sure where I stand on the issue. I mean yes, the class has been a lot harder than it should have been; I'm definitely in agreement with that. Hell, the homework made me cry at least three times, and anybody who knows me will tell you that's quite a feat. And there have been certainly significant problems with the professor's teaching and the way the class has progressed.

But I also realize that any professor teaching a class for the first time ever is going to have some problems. Case in point: my AP US History class at Canterbury—that was very nearly a disaster. But I know that in subsequent years, the class has improved greatly as the teacher has gotten more comfortable teaching it. I'm fairly certain that this is a similar situation, and while it sucks that we have to be the "guinea pigs" in this class, well, that happens. Somebody has to do it; that's the way things work.

And besides all that, I knew the professor a little bit even before I took the class, so I know he's a nice guy and he's really not out to get us.

Which is all leading up to this afternoon. The professor asked if I would come by sometime during his office hours to talk, he didn't say about what. So I go, thinking it's probably going to be something about my last midterm, which I summarily bombed. Well, I get there, and first thing, he apologizes for putting me in this awkward situation and says I don't have to answer if I don't want to, but (to severely paraphrase the question) could I possibly shed some light on what everybody's so pissed off about? And the whole time, I can just hear the real question in his voice, "I'm a nice guy, and I'm trying so hard—why do they hate me?"

Dear god, what am I supposed to do with that?!

So I mumbled some about what I could think of that people were complaining about, about how chapter 13 wasn't covered enough to be on the final, and how class was confusing for various reasons, and blah blah blah. And I kind of wanted to show him the emails, because there were some really valid complaints in there that I thought he should know about, but there were people's names on there, and then wouldn't I be some kind of narc or something? I mean, I know at least most of this will probably come out in the course evals, but I know that when I fill those out, at least, it tends to get mashed down into just one or two sentences, and I feel like people would all put down the same one or two points and not flesh out the problems in their entirety like they did in these emails.

So I debated back and forth for awhile, and finally I copied a couple of the more informative emails and forwarded them to him sans names, so hopefully that will give him a clearer idea of what's going on. I hope that was the right decision.