Bad Teacher?

From a very young age, we're taught or under the assumption that in an academic environment, the teacher is always right. We never seem to question this concept until we reach middle school or high school when our adolescent years come storming in and giving us the irresistible urge to question authority. However, this is an age where we're also the most naive. It's only when we grow a bit older and gain a better sense and understanding of the world that we start to see things as they truly are.

When I graduated high school, I knew I wanted to be a veterinarian. Thankfully, there was a college right in my hometown that offered Pre-Veterinary Medicine as one of its outstanding majors. The downside is that this was a private college. I came from a lower-middle-class family and given that this was a profession that required an abundant amount of schooling and my average grades throughout the span of my previous educational experiences, the idea of succeeding seemed a bit far-fetched. Surprisingly, I was accepted and was approved for my student loans and I couldn't have been happier.

The social aspect of this college wasn't the most ideal, but I didn't care about that very much. I wasn't there for friends. I was there to learn and climb the ladder into a profession where I could work with animals all day. The true difficulty came from the classes themselves. I was under some strange impression that because I chose a major regarding what I wanted to do, all of the courses I took would provide me with the information needed to fulfill my dream job's requirements. Instead, I was taking a speech class, a music class, a foreign language, calculus, and trigonometry. My biology courses were the only relatable subject for the entirety of my (short) enrollment with this major. I figured mathematics was essential in a sense, given that I would need to use math in regards to costs, treatments, and prescriptions, but I knew that I wasn't going to be using sine, cosine, and tangent equations or graphs in order to remove an abscess from a dog's leg. But I digress. It was required for the degree so I went with it despite my lack of proficiency in the general subject. Things went south fast.

I quickly found myself spending hours, full nights multiple times a week, having severe panic attacks because I couldn't manage to understand the work I was doing. I took notes during the classes and took in every example that I could but to no avail. Again, I'd never been proficient in math, but I was hoping now that I had some kind of drive, some inspiration, that I'd be able to improve. I tried seeing the on-campus tutor who was always busy (and I was unable to make an appointment in advance due to my work schedule), tried online tutors only to have wasted money and not gained any further understanding, and tried researching various new methods myself and I failed in every attempt. I was at a D- by the near-end of the semester.

One day close to exam week, I was sitting in class, exhausted, ready to quit. My teacher had written an extremely complex equation on the board and I was trying to get every detail down to the last drop. Though tired, I felt as though I was understanding how it was coming together — until she put the chalk down, backed away from the board, and looked at the problem. She studied it during a moment of silence, turned around with wide eyes and said, "Guys, did I do this right?"

My stomach dropped and my brain woke up, riled as ever.

I was overcome with so many emotions that I wasn't even sure how to manage them properly. I walked out of the class, excusing myself, went to my car, and broke down, crying and shaking out of frustration. Not only did I think I was finally understanding the work only to find out that the instructor hadn't done it correctly, but what if the entire semester was a waste because this woman just wasn't a good teacher? Is that a thing, a college professor, being unable to teach all types of students properly? What if all of the notes that I had been taking could have been easier to understand if only the instructor had a more efficient manner of presenting them? I was second-guessing every single thing about my relationship with school. And it turns out, I was right. Lack of understanding is not always the student's fault. There are many ways to enhance your ability to obtain and hold onto information with various study methods, but sometimes the bottom line is simply a bad teacher. I felt worthless, like I wasted my time, and dropped out.

It seems like such a minuscule problem given that example, but as I've gotten older and attended a community college to take classes for "fun," I've been seeing it more frequently. There are so many amazing teachers that learn various methods to teach the same content and answer their students' questions without making them second-guess their abilities or make them feel stupid, but there are others that put no real effort into teaching at all. My current programming teacher assigns work and quizzes that are all in the textbook required for this class but presents no projects or information of her own to test our knowledge or abilities, and if we ask her for assistance, she refers us to the tutor (one programming tutor who is on campus for two hours a week). She'll take points off for missing one thing one week and ignore it but take points off for something else another week. She's the most uninvolved and inconsistent teacher I've ever had, but my attitude and stress management is far more advanced than before because this time I know it's not my fault.

As far as how to fix this, all it took was a little reaching out to my classmates to find out they were having the same problems as well. We've been keeping track of things; saving emails where she proved to be of no help as our teacher, screenshots of assignments that contain incorrect information, due dates, page numbers, etc., everything that we can use to present it to the president of the college to verify that she pays little to no attention to the course. This is in no way out of malicious intent, but poor results from one single class can result in your GPA dropping, failure to meet course requirements in the expected amount of time, and for some, it can mean losing their eligibility for grants and loans or their overall confidence and mental/emotional well-being. It's difficult to work with someone who won't work with you, especially when you have to work full-time on top of it. It's important that you bring issues like this to the attention of whoever you can to make it right. This may be the principal of your high school, the president of your college, or a member of the board of education. Do whatever you can (within reason) to make your voice heard. Take your time, money, and overall self seriously. Education is important, fulfilling, and fun so long as you're getting the most out of it.