One of the Strangest Classes I've Ever Been In...

I've certainly had some...interesting...college experiences over the course of my four years in college, and tonight's class just got put on the list. You see, I have this lovely Chilean professor that has made it a point over the course of the semester to take let his ideas be known to all. Anyone who has a contradicting point of view from his own either offends him in some way or their opinion is completely disregarded. See here for a taste of my friend's memorable experiences.

Just so you have some background information on the course: The topic is Foundations of Bilingual Education. The entire semester consisted of coming to class and hearing group presentations given by the students. (Because of course professors aren't getting paid to teach that's the students' job.) Each group has around nine individuals...way too many to be convenient for planning or to guarantee everyone has a fair share of work put into the presentation. Well...tonight was my group's turn.Our group made each part of our presentation short and to the point, because this professor tends to get worked up over issues and likes to go on half hour tangents "problematizing" the situation of the U.S. public school system that take up our whole presentation time.

Well, everything was going well until the part of our presentation given about involving Latino families. A girl in our group got up, presented about the main points given in our readings, and sat down. Cue next presenter...but wait...the professor has something to say. He stood up and in front of the whole class said, "I was not at all impressed with the last presentation." He went on to criticize how the girl presented, saying she used a "tone" that implied to him that she didn't care or consider the issue to be important. "It was very disrespectful and I will not have that in my class." Tone? What tone? The girl tried to apologize for something that she hadn't done, but he too busy telling the current presenter how excited he was to hear his presentation. "You are in the classroom and really know about this situation. I know that you will give us some great insights. We are all looking forward to hearing you present."...

So, awkwardly the class went on. The next presenter, from one of the distance sites, again started to introduce his topic, but a brave girl in our class interrupted him saying she had a comment. She defended the poor girl who he had criticized (who was now trying to keep from bawling) by looking directly at the professor and saying "I don't appreciate what you just said to her." Before she could continue the professor cut her off.

"Okay, we are not wasting everyone's time having this discussion. We have covered all the issues we need to cover in this class for the semester. Put your books away. We are done here. Goodbye."

And class was over just like that.

Side note: In case you are wondering what tops this incident in the strangeness category. My English 2010 professor wrote a whole paper that he shared with us. The topic was how it would be very possible that he could be the next Mark Hacking (who by the way my cousin dated very seriously at one point). Apparently, my professor had previously worked with Mark in a mental institution where their job was to restrain inmates and he always admired how well Mark did the job. Also they had many of the same church callings and beliefs in general. So maybe he could go home and kill his wife tonight. Why not? Do you wonder why this was my least favorite class? Yikes!!!

For all you Utah State critics out there, this college IS really wonderful despite the tone of my post. Have I mentioned that graduation is coming up fast!!! Only eight more school days!