I'm going to my second to last class of that British literature class
I've told y'all about tonight. This is the one where the teacher makes
wild assertions about word etymologies and carbon dating, presents them
as fact, reads my polite corrections or requests for primary sources in
email, doesn't answer my email and then repeats the assertions. It is
almost as though she's challenging me to bring it up in class, but I
don't because I don't believe in embarrassing teachers in front of their
students no matter how much they deserve it. I have other problems with
this teacher besides her lack of factual information.

I've learned from the school newspaper that students will not be filling
out teacher evaluations this year. Apparently the evaluations were
written into the contracts, and the teachers have been working without
contracts. The evaluations are a negotiating point in contracts with
the teachers' union (er, uh, professional association) not wanting them.
All this is news to me and shows how naive I can be. I would have
thought that by the time you got to teaching on the college level, you
would want evaluations because good ones show you're a good teacher and
everyone wants to be a good teacher. This is one more example of the
way this school sees itself as being teachers and administration AGAINST
the students in a sort of war, not everyone working together for better
education.

I'm pissed off with this teacher enough, and I have so little to lose
since I'm only auditing and not going for a degree, that I've started
playing with the idea of teacher evaluation website. Students would
right in what they thought of their teachers. I'd have rules saying
that the comments had to be true, no blatant name calling ("that bitch
doesn't know what she's talking about") but true statements could be put
up for all the world to see ("when asked how the wellstone could be
carbon dated, 'with carbon' was the impatient reply"). Is this done at
other schools? Do the teachers ever sue for defamation of character?

--Lia