the id, the ego, & the single misfiring brain cell - Latest Comments on student-teacher conference

Daddy [Visitor] in response to: student-teacher conference

Mon, 03 May 2010 00:12:45 +0000

I agree with Lorraine. Stick to your guns, but listen to the prof. You may get a lower grade, but if you publish, you will probably start another way to critique. Me

Lorraine [Visitor] in response to: student-teacher conference

Sat, 01 May 2010 16:29:24 +0000

Hi Diana,

I might suggest giving the prof a cooling off period then making a new appointment with her to see if it was just a particularly bad day for her or, if not, what she would like you to have done. By having the prof clearly delineate expectations it makes your options clearer for future assignments done for her.

These second visits need to be mostly a listening exercise, something I’m not good at, but by the end of it, the prof will at least feel heard.

By the way, yours is the approach to analysing literature that I prefer. It’s what we do with music all the time; (please put, “and how did that influence her work?” after each sentence.
-What was the composer living with at the time?
-What was he expressing?
-For whom was it written eg, a paying client or a great love lost?
-What was going on in the world at the time?
-What was the music style, and why, at the time?

It is how things are studied in one creative field but somehow, with your prof at least, it is not valid. Huh?
I thought university, especially grad school, was to teach you not to find the “right” answer but rather to think.

Keep on thinking.

Lorraine

admin [Member] in response to: student-teacher conference

Sat, 01 May 2010 16:11:43 +0000

More or less the same thing, Jam. :)

I wasn’t being belligerent, even though it kinda reads like that. I said a couple of times that I wasn’t trying to be contentious; I just don’t understand. She was a bit frustrated–because she couldn’t make me understand or convince me she was right, I imagine–but not angry.

Jam [Visitor] in response to: student-teacher conference

Sat, 01 May 2010 05:23:17 +0000

so my comment above makes no sense because I wrote “can’t” instead of “can” and made my teacher sound dumb instead of arrogant. oops.

…Usually when I disagree with teachers like this I just do it my way anyway and take a bad grade. What do you do?

Aunt Bann [Visitor] in response to: student-teacher conference

Sat, 01 May 2010 02:54:22 +0000

Your teacher sounds like some I’ve been associated with, in the past. They have their minds made up, and nothing you can say or do will change their way of thinking. (Sounds like my mother, doesn’t it?) Anyway, I think you are right in that writing the paper the way your teacher seems to demand will not be true to your own opinion. However, you know, now, that you will probably be given a lower grade because of that. Your decision rests on how much you are willing to bend in order to get the grade. And the decision, my dear niece, is definitely one YOU (and you alone) must make. Good luck!

admin [Member] in response to: student-teacher conference

Fri, 30 Apr 2010 16:25:48 +0000

Jam, that’s what happens when you combine a cumulative lack of sleep with sleep meds, wine, and 2am. I’m happy I at least saved the thoughts I’d written. Didn’t mean to publish it yet.

I’ve gone back and finished it now. :)

Becky [Visitor] in response to: student-teacher conference

Fri, 30 Apr 2010 16:20:56 +0000

I totally understand what you’re saying, literally. :)

It sounds like you think the same way about psychoanalysis as I do about evolutionary psychology . . . it’s a Rudyard Kipling type of the science. Your prof’s argument is a croc.

Jam [Visitor] in response to: student-teacher conference

Fri, 30 Apr 2010 15:16:39 +0000

I think some of your post has been cut off? It hangs in the middle of a sentence.

I agree with you about literary crit and worldview; no approach is necessarily more valid than another. For example, I have trouble analyzing poetry. I prefer to respond to poetry with more poetry, rather than academic babble. idk.

arguing with profs is a double-edged sword. You gotta be careful with it. I remember arguing about what makes a good history essay with my AP Euro history teacher, since he preferred laundry lists of facts with scanty analysis (he was literally like, “I can’t connect the dots in my own head thankyouverymuch"–but I thought the point of essays was for us to connect the dots?). In the end I just got Bs and Cs and didn’t worry too much.