what would you think of this type of professor, is it not ironic?

Question

ok i had this professor on one occasion, who assigned us certain rather long and tedious passages from textbooks, essays, what have you. i had read the books that these passages etc were taken from in their entirety as to understand the coursework better. So one day i decided to go to their office to discuss some of what was written in them with the said instructor, but they hadn't read them at all- NEVER. I was really sad that a teacher would assign passages from books they had never actually read themselves. Needless to say i was rather discouraged since I couldn't actually talk to them about it. Is this lazy? or common among academia types?

well unfortunately this teacher is tenured, so they are "lasting a long time." And i dont think this is an unusual incident in terms of this particular instructor. They seem too caught up in their research to care about anything else, most importantly the classes they teach.

Answer 1

Whoa! That is unusual...literally.

I assign a certain amount of reading (including excerpts from larger works) fairly regularly--and I promise you that I have read every single one of them, and know them all in context. I would NEVER permit myself to look like a "two-percenter" to any of my students; I value their respect, and feel that I should demonstrate why they call me "professor"--to ME that is an honorable, and respectable title. If I don't honor and respect it, how can my students?

It is difficult to say why, or how this happened to you--but I do very much hope that this was a one-time-only incident. Perhaps there were issues on that particular day--or who knows what?-- that simply caught your prof off guard? I can't really know, but be assured that the vast majority of my colleagues and I take our responsibilities quite seriously--we get reviewed in any case by our departments. Hopefully, you had the chance to mention this incident on the anonymous teacher evaluations at the end of the term.

People who do not do their jobs don't last very long in professorships--there's a great deal more to it than the average student is generally aware.

Answer 2

I would have to assume that he had at least read the assigned passages. Otherwise they might as well be random passages with no relevance to what he intends to teach his students. There are a lot of books around and it would be hard for him to have read all of them from cover to cover. Some of the lecturers that I had at Uni often set their own books as required reading. Obviously, they knew those books inside out! I do think that, even if a lecturer has not read every single book available on a given topic, he should have a high level of expertise in that area, which at some stage will have required extensive reading on his part. He should be able to hold an intelligent and meaningful conversation with you on this topic. If he can't, then you should be concerned.

Answer 3

I'm a bit confused. Was it the book the professor hadn't read, or was it the passage? I can certainly understand finding and using passages that are useful for a class's specific purpose without having read the entire book. I don't think that's lazy as a general rule. I applaud your efforts to learn even more.

Answer 4

WOW! that surprises and disappoints me. i would go above the professor to the dean to see if that is an acceptable practice. the dean may actually be unaware of that. if they are aware of it, that is a real shame. how can we expect to learn from those who havent got the knowledge to share?

Answer 5

The Prof used pre-written instructions. Nothing from his own brain.
Maybe he doesn't have one.