By Karma Christine Salvto
Albert Einstein once said, ‘It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge.”
I agree. And I am thankful I have been blessed to have had the opportunity of being taught by excellent teachers throughout my entire educational journey. Unfortunately, there have been a few along the way that somehow must have slipped through the cracks.
They seem to enjoy spending less time in the classroom than the students, or they drone on for hours about something that could be interesting — if someone else taught it. And then there are those who use profanity or complain about personal issues during class time. I don’t know about the rest of you, but I find such behavior simply inappropriate. If a professor befriends a student and has a discussion after class, fine — but to use class time as a soap box or therapy session is unacceptable. What occurs in the classroom should stay strictly professional.
Secondly, at $34,300 per year we deserve top quality education — all the time. No exceptions. It is necessary to eliminate the few bad apples that are spoiling the bunch.
Some of the professors I have encountered definitely need a little more schooling themselves before they teach us what it is going to take to survive in the world. Their actions only deteriorate the sacred profession of teaching, and devalue the work of those professors who are doing what they do because it is their passion.
When it comes to education, our leaders need to check their egos at the door, find themselves a personality, get in touch with their inner child and begin to look at life through the eyes of their students.
To balance out the negative I will say that I have also encountered some truly outstanding professors who have managed to challenge me, taught me valuable lessons and made otherwise boring material quite intriguing. Thank you.
But for a university that prides itself on being one of the best, one would think they would only want the best to teach the future generations. Not all professors are this way.
With the end fall semester growing near and spring registration just around the corner, it is time to reflect upon which professors would be worth taking — and those that should be avoided. Don’t disregard a teacher because they give a lot of work or because someone has told you they never give A’s. Challenges are what make us stronger and build our character. Besides, we are more likely to remember, and cherish, the lessons we learned from a professor who cared enough to push us beyond our first attempt and forced us to think outside of the box.
As students hash out the professors worth taking, the administration should be paying attention. I ask them to take seriously feedback and suggestions they receive from the students on evaluations regarding the professors who are not living up to expectations. They must honestly take all of the input to heart, even if they don’t agree, if they want Pepperdine’s reputation to continue growing in value.
October 31, 2002