Letter to the editor

Profs on sidelines as students teach

I’d like to pose a question to the student body: Has anyone else noticed that professors aren’t... well... professing anymore?

I’ve spent three years here at UWRF, and in the past two semesters I have noticed a trend in the presentation of topics in a good chunk of my classes. These presentations are student presentations. OK, don’t get me wrong, I love doing presentations just as much as the next student, but when the class presentations are the only things happening in class, there is something wrong with the teaching style.

I give big credit to the professors who have done the hardest thing I think a professor has to do -- generate a topic and present it in a way that keeps them interested and helps them retain information they can take into the world. Now, some aren’t as great as the others at keeping it interesting, but at least they are trying.

A growing number of my fellow classmates and I are disappointed by how some of our classes are now being taught -- by us, the students.

Some professors have given up teaching their own class and turned it over to the students. In my opinion, if I’m teaching part of the class and the rest of the class teaches everything else while the professor hides behind student presentations, where is my slice of the paycheck? I’m paying to be taught by a professor. Whether they make the class interesting or not, at least they are actually teaching their own class instead of leaving it in the hands of the students. I would rather get the straightforward and most reliable information from a professor who has a bachelor’s, master’s or doctorate degree in the subject than from a student who spent 15 minutes looking up definitions on Wikipedia.

My basic point is that I am paying tuition to be taught, not to teach the class on my own. I beg you -- teach me. I’m willing to learn. That’s why I am here.

Katherine Arcand, Student