Ask HN: What can I do about bad professors?

In addition to being a bad teacher, he was a jerk. He took great delight in the fact that he failed 30-50% of his class every year (as he gleefully announced first day of class, "I've seen most of you before, and I'll see most of you again"). He assigned problem sets, but just assigned a grade, so you couldn't figure out what you had done wrong. He was famous for turning his office light off during supposed office hours, not answering your knock, and then skulking out when he thought you had left. He once took points off an exam because I switched from pen to pencil to do a side-derivation of an integral.

And now we come to my point. There was no point in doing anything about it. The powers that be knew he was a terrible teacher. How could they not? Other teachers would openly joke about it, or listen with knowing smiles if you told one on "Rusty". For whatever reason-- probably tenure-- he was allowed to stay. Or maybe they liked the fact that somebody was doing the hard job of winnowing out each incoming freshman class to a more manageable size by junior year.

But since it was widely understood he was a terrible teacher, it didn't really matter. Nobody cared if you flunked his class two or three times before making it through. And there was a great instant camaraderie to be found with fellow-students across all the years, just swapping stories about "Rusty".

And you know, a few years later, after I was able to let go of my anger about it, it at least turned into some good stories. Five years on, it didn't matter to me, anymore. And 30 years on, my only regret is that I didn't learn the material better.

In the big picture, you might think about it this way. You go to college to prepare for your future. An obvious part of that is mastering the class material. But part of it is learning to encounter people who are terrible at what they do, figuring out how to step around them, and figuring out whether you have any power to move them out of the way for other people.

To be more specific, I would start by having an off-the-record conversation with another professor you trust and like (if there aren't any, then either you're in the wrong place, or you're doing it wrong). Try to get a sense whether there's a broad understanding among the faculty that the malefactor is a bad teacher. If there is, but it's accepted, then just give up. But if there's some process under way, you may be given the name of a particular person to whom you should speak-- somebody may be developing a case against him, and ask you for specific information.

Oh yes, and a lot of universities have an ombudsperson, who is there to help students navigate the administration. That person generally should be isolated, organizationally, from the teachers, so that you don't have to worry about confidences being revealed, or personal politics coming into play.

Good luck!

You instead are looking for excuses. If you went on to say that you had one bad professor, and backed that up with some meaningful examples of how this person committed unconscionable sins of pedagogy and abused puppies and kittens, then perhaps, some venting might be understandable as an exception to a deeply practiced value of personal responsibility for your learning.

But when the bad professors are legion and the alleged offenses petty and trifling, the claim to virtue seems suspect.

To expect a professor to spend time twiddling their thumbs waiting for someone to drop by and complain that their grade was unfair and their life thereby ruined is a bit absurd. Office hours are times when appointments are available.

Out in the world of money, the answers aren't in the back of the book. When something is wrong a professional must figure it out, themselves. Learning how to struggle is important. Good professors take their students where they need to go. Some go with a smile. Others must be dragged.

That said, "bad" is subjective. Here is my RateMyProfessors page:

http://www.ratemyprofessors.com/ShowRatings.jsp?tid=1631570

One complainer said of me that "He isn't able to understand and answer questions that students ask in class or in his office." Huh? I consider myself a good teacher and work hard to improve -- and at the same time, many students aren't happy and I'm not really sure what I might do about this. I suspect there is some mixture of cultural misunderstanding (I teach in the South, and am very much not a Southerner), bitterness that I ask my students to work hard, and probably some legitimate complaints which nevertheless students don't share with me.

Whatever excuses I might offer, I did piss this student off, and I would like to understand how not to.

So I would advise you to do two things.

One, talk to your professors. E-mail them after grades are final, tell them you have some frustrations about the class, and ask them if they'd be willing to listen. They might surprise you. I, for one, don't get constructive criticism as often as I could probably use it. If your professors take you seriously, then you've accomplished your purpose.

If not, yes, by all means, write the dean, write the department chair, write anybody. Understand on one hand that it is their job to listen and they will probably be quite willing to listen, and on the other that even the best professors garner complaints, especially from lazy students. If you respect their natural skepticism, and make your points calmly, politely, and with evidence, I think you will find them willing to listen.

And BTW, I second everything dmlorenzetti said.

> I found both obnoxiously holier-than-thou; very much the condescending academics.

I'm not saying you're wrong, but I would urge you to be slower to judgement.

I have developed at least a little bit of a reputation for being unapproachable and reluctant to help students. Which I find very unfortunate, because I am quite happy to help students and indeed wish more would seek help.

In my case I suspect there are two factors at work.

(1) I am always annoyed for an instant when I'm interrupted from my other work. I do my best to recover and welcome the student warmly, but people pick up on my very first reaction, and that's not the part I can change readily.

(2) I am teaching in the South, which is culturally unfamiliar. It is considered polite to chitchat about the weather or whatever before getting down to business, but I can never think of anything to say about the weather and typically ask students what's on their mind right away. Unfortunately, this probably makes a few people uneasy.

In short, there is probably another side to this story. If you endeavor to understand it, you will have enormously more leverage if and when you complain.