my life

Interactions with my "Themes" teacher.

This is getting too strange for words, so I'm sharing already.

I'm taking three courses this semester, all of which are absolutely required for graduation and that I haven't the option of dropping and retaking next semester. I'm locked in here, period.

Two of the classes are regular "performance-based" courses, which means we attend lectures and write papers. The other is my thesis seminar, in which I receive absolutely no direction whatsoever and am to produce a finely-tuned thesis proposal in the exact format required for which (I may have mentioned) I get absolutely no direction whatsoever. Not a scrap. Not even a URL.

But this isn't about that. This is about my professor in "Themes in Culture and Society I," a base course for the Master of Liberal Arts. He didn't impress me mightily the first day of class, but he's impressing me less and less all the time. I'm frustrated up to here with him by this point, and then things just got weird.

Before class started, I dutifully went to the bookstore, learned what books I'd need for the course, then went and ordered them used from Amazon, like I had good sense. There were five books on the list at the time, two of which are the two-inch variety. On the first day of class, the list was extended to eight books, bringing in a 2.5 incher on the Reformation.

We will, for this course, write five papers, each of five pages (at least) apiece, and each paper will have cited sources from at least four scholarly books and three scholarly articles. All papers will be on religious conformity or dissent (in ancient Greek society, ancient Roman society, the Early Church, Medieval Europe, and the Reformation, in that order).

Pertinent background information: Dr. S stressed to us (and wrote on the syllabus in bold type, no less) that if we had any questions or needed any help, we were to write to his home address, which he checks "15 to 20 times a day." He also stressed several times that our grades would be derived from "taking good notes" at all lectures, and that if we missed more than two days in the course of the semester, we'd be dropped from the course.

So I wrote the following to him last night, when I got home from class (having rummaged through the library in the interim, I had a new question):

Dr. S,

Can you specify what you mean, exactly, when you ask for "scholarly" books? How does one tell whether a book is scholarly?

Thank you in advance.

r/

Diana Black

You should be aware that there are about ten of us in his Themes class, if that many. We've met a few times, so he's had an opportunity to figure out who we are.

He replied a bit later that evening:

Dear Ms. Black,

I am afraid you caught me at home without my roll in front of me, so please tell me to which class are you referring.
The general rule to follow, however, is to ask me if you are not sure concerning individual books. I would try to use those that have been published in the past twenty years.

All the best,
Dr. S

Um, ok. Perhaps the definition of "scholarly book" varies depending on which class you're in...?

I responded this morning before I left for work:

Dr. S,

If you don't know who I am, then how do you know whether I'm taking good notes or not? :)

Thank you for your response. Have a great weekend.

Diana

Then I went to, you know, defend the country and stuff. I came home to find the following messages from him:

(7:40am)
Ms. Black,

I said nothing about taking notes. I only responded to your query about "scholarly books."

Dr. S

(12:30pm)
Hello,

Did you get my last email?
I would appreciate a response.

Dr. S

What the...?

This man is missing some crucial synapses. And he exhibits clear troll behavior.

I typed out several responses, most of which I deleted, knowing that I need this jerk's grade. I ended up sending the following, being too aware that I would not be forgiven if I simply did not respond at all:

Dr. S,

I got the emails appended to this message while I was at work today. I cannot access this account from there.

The comment about taking notes was a joke.

This guy's a nutjob. This is most frightening to me, because I'm stuck with him for the next 3.5 months.

Oh...I realized last night, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that the utter pile of reading books (and readings) we've been assigned are often not even referenced in lectures. There are no tests in this course, either. Further, the papers we are assigned to write need have nothing whatsoever to do with either the "class readings" or the lectures.

I bought seven books for this &%$# class. Seven. Big honking books. The assigned readings are overwhelming for those who have day jobs (which includes everyone in the class, with the exception of the professor)...and have nothing to do with anything. I feel vaguely betrayed. I mean, on the bright side, I am aware that I can blow off the readings without fear of repercussion, but this constitutes a huge waste of money.

Anyway. I'm hoping he takes the hint and ends our little email affair, but I fear his humorless, I-got-beat-up-a-lot-in-grade-school personality may not allow it.

d