[The Lone Ranger]

One of the professors in our department is well-known for being ... less than helpful ... when it comes to his students. By "less than helpful," I mean his "teaching" strategy [as attested to by many, many students, and as witnessed by myself on a few occasions] consists of: walk in to the classroom; project a few Powerpoint slides which consist of a couple of bullet points in black text on a white background, with no explanation and no illustrations; read the slides verbatim; walk out.

He takes no questions from students if he can help it. If a student dares to ask a question, he doesn't answer and often berates them for presuming to ask. He makes not the slightest pretense that he gives a single, solitary damn about his responsibilities to the students, or about the profession of teaching.

Since he never explains anything, never takes questions, and never engages with the students, his classes seldom last more than 10 minutes.

He outright lies to the students. I've heard him do it on more than one occasion.

Needless to say, the students almost universally loathe him.

And, needless to say, those of us who actually take our profession and our responsibilities seriously think he's an absolute disgrace, and absolutely abhor the fact that he's doing our students such an enormous disservice.


Why on Earth he wasn't fired long ago is a mystery to me. Except ... he also happens to coach one of the sports teams. And while he probably couldn't be a worse or a more irresponsible teacher if he tried, he's evidently a good coach.



They have a big test tomorrow. He promised them a review session on Wednesday, which the students were anxious for since he hasn't taught them anything at all as of yet.*

The "review session" lasted 3 minutes. I know, because I timed it. He walked in, told them that the exam was still scheduled for Friday (he had cancelled both of the previous classes), told them there would be 30 questions on the exam -- and walked out.


So, a bunch of students came to me last night. Since the material they'd theoretically covered was on DNA structure, we talked about that, and I did what I could to [hopefully] prepare them for the exam.

This afternoon, I spent a bit of time talking with 3 more students in the class, hopefully providing a bit of help. Afterward, I went back to my office to grade some papers while they studied on their own. When I came back a while later to check on them, one of them had drawn a big heart on the chalkboard and written "We Love [My Name]" in it. D'awwww ...

I was kind of disappointed when it was erased for the next class.



Today, one of my colleagues told me that she'd heard from some students that we share that I'm helping the students in Professor Slackard's class. She warned me to be careful, because if Professor I-Don't-Give-a-Damn-About-the-Students finds out that I'm helping his students, he'll likely regard it as "interfering," and be upset.

Well, if he'd just do his damn job, I would have to do it for him, would I?


*Professor I-Don't-Give-a-Damn-About-the-Students had previously taught a course that I took over when I was hired by the college. For my first couple of years, several students who had taken the course with Professor I-Don't-Give-a-Damn-About-the-Students took it again, with me. [Because, as several outright told me, the rumor was that I was actually interested in teaching them stuff.] One of my colleagues once told me that, on the first day of classes, one of her students came to her and said, "I learned more from Professor [Me] on the first day of class than I did during an entire semester with Professor I-Don't-Give-a-Damn-About-the-Students."