Wednesday, Mar. 02, 2005

Longest Week Ever

Okay, I have the stupidest professors ever. Now I know that one of them doesn't even have a Bachelor's, so maybe that's an excuse. but for the others....you would think that a PhD would mean that they're smart . . . well, no. and it pisses me off because students like me are the ones who end up suffering becaususe of it.

Take, for example, my professor for Gender, Development and Globalization. I had my midterm last week adn the professor told us that it would consist of three essays, out of a choice of six. Two of which we would know before hand and could prepare ahead of time, and the last one we would be given at the exam. So, like any student, I prepared for the two I wanted to do and read over what was not covered by the first four choices (mind you she also said that the last essay would be of a different, more personalized format.) I was actually looking forward to this exam because it meant i would not have to listen to my professor's droning for two and a half hours.

so, here are two of the four essays that were given beforehand:

Section B question 1: Houw would you define "feminization of poverty?" do you think taht globalization has a part to play in the incidence of feminization of poverty?
Question 2: Write a concise, clearly argued essay on the issues relating to women's unpaid work and its impact on rendering women invisible, especially in developping countries. Review the private/public dichotomy and its gendered impact.

And then, I get to the exam, and here are the two questions she gives us to choose from for our third essay:

1. How would you define "feminization of poverty?" do you think that globalization has a part to play in the incidence of "feminization of poverty?"
2. Write a concise, clearly argued essay on the issues relating to women's unpaid work and its impact on rendering women invisible.

So, I don't know if the reasoning behind this midterm is due to my professor's retardedness, or because she maliciously wanted to screw us over because she knew that we obviously couldn't choose the same essay we already answered, and that obviously we would never expect her to choose the same essays and thus did not prepare for the other one. What the fuck.

Now, let me move on to complaining about my Energy and Environmental Policy professor. Now this professor is an adjunct and never even finished his BA; he literally spent his life as an intern bitch for his senator and so therefore knows SO MUCH about public policy. so that might explain his stupidity. Well, I have my midterm for this class on friday and he was nice enough to dedicate our tuesday class to reviewing the material. What he did not tell us, however, was that his idea of "review" consists of standing up in front of the class and asking, "so, do you have any questions?" Well, obviously, no, since i didn't go over the material beforehand to find things i had questions about! So thanks for letting me know bitch!! And he was all like, "oh my gosh, i'm so surprised y'all don't have no questions!" WELL NO SHIT! YOU DIDN'T TELL US TO COME UP WITH THEM! so after about 15 minutes of this, he said, "well if you don't have anything to ask, i hope you don't mind if i just leave!" WTF!
this is the same professor who i emailed a couple weeks ago, asking to clarify something on the syllabus. we had a big assignment that was rather vague and i wasn't sure what he was expecting. he responded by literally copying and pasting from the syllabus, and sending it back to me with the message "i think its pretty clear." Later on he said in class, "you know, there are some of you who wanted more guidance, who wanted me to tell you how to write this. well just know that that's not how i work, i like to give my students much more freedom in their assignments. I just wanted to yell, LISTEN, BITCH: THAT IS ALL YOU HAD TO SAY! MOST PROFESSORS I HAVE (as in the ones with PhD's) ACTUALLY CARE WHAT I WRITE IN A PAPER THAT IS TURNED IN! SO DON'T BE AN ASSHOLE!

So yeah. Basically, the moral of the story is, I can't wait for this week (really this semester) to end and for spring break (really, summer break) to begin! Someone told me, you know, its normal to get tired and disillusioned with school just prior spring break. well, is it normal to be tired and disillusioned with school say, 7 or 8 weeks prior to spring break?