This is already turning out to be a bad day, but as I walked from class to class today, I've been passively listening to people talk. This has almost instantly sent me over the edge. Between a girl voicing her opinion as to why she would vote for Gingrich as a republican candidate & my communications professor scribbling an insane amount of criticism of a speech outline without a) going over exactly what her expectations were in class or b) being able to grade every one's stuff objectively; I am at my capacity for people's shit today. Where to start?
Well, right now I'm sitting outside my next class waiting for time to start and the professor in the classroom next to it has her door open and is lecturing on social media. I have no clue what type of class this is, but its in the Business building so I can assume two things: 1) It is some type of business class. 2) She has no idea that her students likely know 10 times more about Social media than she does. She has just explained Twitter and Pinterest back to back in the absolutely most basic terms possible. She also stated that Twitter was a very useful tool for most people to give you very important information. Has she ever read a Twitter feed? I'm sure there may be some deep, dark, nerd circle out there, where people are tweeting about global economic policy or some other stuff that no one on Twitter really cares about. When I think of Twitter, I think of journalism and the ability to send the headlines of upcoming stories out before they are released. The more well-known area of Twitter would be where people follow Kardashians and other reality TV stars and attempt to interact with them and get a retweet because they live a life where a celebrity hitting a button or two to reply to their message makes the year for them. That and they wanna know the secret to their success. (Hint: it was banging the singer Brandi's unfamous brother on camera. I have a complete other post I want to write on the state of our nation where this allows you to make $20 million for a 72 day sham of a marriage (Also, we accept this as some type of acceptable behavior, but freak the fuck out because two men or two women want to marry each other?))
I digress. The second instance of anger came as I received an outline back, which was tore to shreds on what I missed or did incorrectly. There were many comments, but the professor gave me no reasoning as to how she takes points off for each infraction. She basically writes a bunch of chicken scratch on your work, gives you a grade, and when you compare it with others in the class, there seems to be no rhyme or reason as to why she gave the grade she did. I cannot explain how pissed I was (and still am) this morning when i got my work back. I understand that it is normal for certain professors to be more strict than others and that certain types of classes are routinely tougher. This is a public speaking class. Every communications class I've ever known about has been one of the easier classes where information and material are concerned. Chemistry or Physics it is not. That being said, I can understand someone setting the bar higher than expected. What I cannot understand, nor accept is for a professor to grade two papers or pieces of work with different grades and similar critiques. It may not be completely tangible like grading a math test, but I HATE (and I cannot stress this word enough) when someone cannot justify their reasoning as to why you were given the response you received. The professor could provide a rough rubric of how you will be evaluated, they just chose not to. Instead, the class is spent covering power point slides that could easily be consumed outside of class in less time and more time devoted to covering, giving examples of, or basically teaching the technique being graded. I didn't decide to incur $3,000 in debt this semester so that I could have a professor show me PowerPoint slides that have little effect on what my money is going towards...a degree.
The final straw this morning was a spritely young coed, who as I walked out with my 2nd coffee this morning, felt compelled to voice her political opinions to everyone within a 20 foot radius. It's understood that they are in fact opinions and thusly don't require extensive knowledge of the concepts or ideas described therein. I also, don't have expectations any longer when it comes to anyone under the age of 25 being able to voice their opinions based on factual evidence, sound reasoning, or life experience. They're young and it makes sense that some of those requirements would be difficult to come by. All I ask is that if you are speaking loudly about someone who could potentially be the leader of the free world, you don't use terms like, "I think Gingrich would get my vote because of like...you know...he totally has..." If you can't fully express what you want to say without sounding like a Valley girl, please by all means, take some extra time, compose yourself, and contemplate your feelings on the subject. Also, don't vote for Gingrich. That's just silly...
Yes, I realize the irony in this upcoming statement (hey, you guys all click on a link because you care what I have to say), but far too often we assume that others give a damn what we think. We assume that our opinion or viewpoint is the benchmark by which all others should be considered. I'm far too tired to understand where stupid ideas come from or where the urge to speak without thinking about what you're saying comes from. Then again, maybe that's why I'm tired, I've been worn down against the dull grindstone that is stupidity and ego-centrism...
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