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 Posted: Fri Apr 19, 2013 12:20 am
(This is related to my life in the sense that academia has gotten me so stressed out that I have the urge to vent/b***h about its issues in relation to my lifelong experiences with it)
Before I start, let it be known that while this rant will pertain to elitism, I in no way wish to undermine academia, it's a great thing if done correctly. Having been in school for around sixteen years, I find that I quite enjoy education as a matter of fact. However, there is an increasingly disturbing trend that I am catching on to as I progress in my years of university, and that is the occasional pride that some instructors have in their title alone.
I completely understand that I as a student go into a class inferior in terms of sheer knowledge of the subject that the instructor has, but if they are so proud of the fact that they know so much more about the subject, I find this is detrimental to my learning. Before I go on, I should say that I am not pointing my finger to every teacher, professor, instructor, etc in existence, but just a small minority of them who ruin the whole pleasure of learning for students worldwide. While true, they can distribute the knowledge of their years of education onto me, and I will learn, what use is it then, if I wish to integrate my own knowledge into the subject by linking their teachings with other concepts, and all they reply with is "this is not relevant to the subject"? Is it that they do not know enough about the concept I am linking the course with, and do not wish to be made a fool of, or do they simply do not see the larger picture, and instead only see what their years of education has taught them? I understand that this is not relevant to subjects where there is a definite, unambiguous answer, such as math, but more ambiguous subjects such as Anthropology, International Studies, the sciences, Political Thought and so on should not mark on the premise of "right and wrong", rather should mark based on insight.
Like sure, writing an essay on Neptune's atmosphere in an "Ethnography of Contemporary Inuit Culture" is truly not relevant, but I strongly feel that most instructors limit their classes to be solely on the subject itself. Using my Inuit example, say someone wished to talk about food imports in Canada. In many ways, this issue affects the Inuit population greatly, yet because the instructor only wishes for the students to focus on what they are teaching, a crucial issue such as food availability to a group of people is ignored. Deliberately ignoring and discouraging independent thought hinders learning progress as it induces a sense of disconnection of a universe that is very much so interconnected with everything in one sense or another. In fact, I'm sure that there is a student more audacious than myself* out there who can write an essay so compelling that the Inuit people are not only related to Neptune's atmosphere, but need it to survive. Yes, laugh it, I must admit I chuckled to myself while writing that, but it is through these independent thinkers that the universe is no longer Earth centred, or peasants could even begin to comprehend that they are just as much of a human than the king was, and subsequently deserved as much rights as he did.
Going further, I found that not only is thought limited in academia, but so is the opportunity to show intellect. Year after year, I am given an exam booklet and told to "write an in class essay". Write an in class essay on what? What I was taught in this class? Because refuting it would only land me a fool's mark, the very same way refuting Nazi ideals in World War II era Germany landed with heavy punishments. Yet as said before, refuting knowledge is why we are here now. I know I am missing crucial facts about education, as I am young, rebellious, and in many ways, looking for reasons to place the heavy burden of being a poor student on to someone else's shoulders, but education is also a young, developing living being who will change with the times. It's a shame that the world revolves around capital where only the elite can afford to be educated, while the smartest person in the world dies in the slums in obscurity.
*I'm not very audacious, just a fan of stating the obvious.
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Posted: Fri May 31, 2013 1:11 am
I agree in the sense that professors/teachers/instructors are still mortal beings and are not all knowing, all seeing, and most of all, usually not up to the task of teaching the particular class they are "assigned" to teach. I am now inclined to say that many places of higher learning are simply a commodity more than an actual place of real learning. Now, I can only draw comparisons with some of the best professors and worst ones I've had so I will explain with some examples and draw some conclusions from that.
Professor A was probably the worst professor that I had, lazy, unmotivated, and regardless of what the answer was, his/her answer was the right one. It was through some research and just gossip (of which I am ashamed of basing my knowledge off of but the implications were from fairly reliable sources and completely believable) that this particular professor wanted NOTHING to do with undergrads, and was once quoted saying something to the effect of undergraduate studies are only here to give the graduates, money for real accomplishments. This angered me and as I talked to my friends with regard to this, they simply said, just go with it, finish the class and hope that he/she doesn't teach another course we need to take, ingraining the idea, at least to me, that education slowly was becoming a high priced commodity in which concepts of grades rule over the actual quality of the material learned, reinforced with instructors upholding this belief.
Professor B on the other hand, was the greatest professor I had, welcomed the opportunity to discuss topics with students in the middle of class, so long as there was ample time to go over all the course work, and allowed for private one on one discussions over various fields with few topics deemed unfit. I have learned a great deal beyond what the course entailed in the syllabus and found out that the course was not taught by a "faculty" or "staff" but rather a graduate student only a few years older than us. I brought up the question of why he/she was teaching if graduate studies were so demanding, and she responded that it was the only way he/she could afford it (back to money). I could only shudder to wonder how and when that transformation from a young, excited student would end up aging into the Professor A that I so despised all because of the necessity of money.
TL;DR: Elitism displayed by teaching "professionals" are to me, grounded in the belief that education has become less of a journey to uncover knowledge and challenge the norm and more of a necessary product for people to be considered a working, productive member of society. (I don't claimed to have gone to every school, I'm only basing off my experience at a public, research based university)
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Posted: Fri May 31, 2013 5:31 am
I believe that what both of you have said is correct when applied to certain professors, I've had a few of those. However, I chose to surround myself with the good ones, the ones that challenged students and cared about more than a pay check. In some ways academia has become a big top circus, with students as mere carnies in the grander scheme of money (just look at sports). However there are still, and always will be, those teachers and professors that care about the students and what they learn and who they become.
The undergrad program I was in was amazing. Most of the professors had public school teaching experience (teaching K-12, not just college) and because of this understood how people learn and believed expanding horizons was more important than being right or wrong. The few in the program without public school experience didn't understand how to teacher, or were elitist pigs who thought that by just telling us facts we should learn and if we didn't it was our fault. I always hated taking courses from them because when you'd ask a question they always made you feel stupid because you should've gotten the information from the one time they said it two weeks ago.
Again, find the good professors, take as many courses from them as you can and you should be fine. I think you'll find that the best university programs are the ones run by the professors who care.
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