Kayla McLaughlin, Reporter and Sports Editor for The Ryersonian
This is a letter for more than one professor. This is for all of the teachers and professors who exhibit every disgusting trait students hate.
After spending 18 years in the educational institution known as school, I’ve developed some strong feelings about professors.
First of all, who told you that it was OK to not take the time to explain assignments? Telling me to just read the textbook is a sorry excuse for you not to do your job. Why are you getting paid to teach me things that I’m teaching myself? And on top of that, you want me to ask three other students before coming to you for clarification? I’m hoping that isn’t what they’re teaching in teacher’s college these days.
Oh, and thanks for making me have to go all the way to the doctor’s office when I was horribly sick and live an hour and a half away from school, just to prove I didn’t skip your quiz. It was worth like five per cent.
For that self-righteous, young, new professor who told the class, “Don’t call me by my first name, call me Dr., or professor _____,” I hate to tell you, but nobody cares about your title, aside from you. We get it, you went to school for a decade and think it makes you a more important human being. Write it on your tombstone.
This one was great: thank you for telling all of the non-Asian students in the class that all we would ever become are burger-flippers. Coming from a privileged Caucasian man, it definitely helped me realize how much harder I would have to work to prove you wrong.
And for every professor who assigns grades for attendance marks, I truly wish I could find forgiveness in my heart for you. Make your class interesting and maybe students will actually want to come. And stop posting half of the slides; just post the whole thing. Who are we kidding? You know I’ll just get a friend to send it to me anyway.
Do not, I beg you, have students in a three-hour class with no 10-minute break. And when class is over, it’s over. Don’t start a new topic at 2:59 p.m. knowing damn well class ends at 3 p.m. “Don’t pack up, I dismiss you, not the time.” Excuse me, but YOUR TIME IS UP, SIR.
Lastly, when a student hands in an assignment late and you’re quick to say, “You should’ve managed your time better.” Well OK professor, the next time you tell me you don’t have my marks on time, or haven’t finished grading my assignment because of your kids or your other classes, I’ll be sure to let you know how to manage your time.
What I’m really saying is that it’s better to be nice to people. Just be understanding. Some of you are so quick to assume that students are lying when they say that something got in the way of them doing their assignments — we have lives outside of school, too.
My name is Kayla McLaughlin, and I am a fourth-year journalism student at Ryerson University. I have a large interest in entertainment news, television and radio broadcasting, and online multi-media writing.
