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Did I get you with that title? I bet you're all wondering what I'm so upset about now. Is this a girl blog? Unfortunately, no, I'm terribly sorry.
I've spoken to all of my family members, and pretty much exhausted my list of close friends to vent to. So now I'm turning to my favorite online community!
I'm taking a graduate-level biochemistry course with a entitled jerk of a professor who seems to think he knows everything about everything. I'm sure everyone has encountered one of these people at some point in their lives. His class is unlike any I've ever taken before. He simply stands in front of a lecture of 100 Biochemistry students and speaks as if he was giving some kind of public speaking oration. He speaks as if the information he's presenting is so simple and so trivial that even an idiot would be able to understand it at first glance.
It doesn't help that the slides he presents for his presentation aid make absolutely no sense, and attempts at questions by students in the class only lead to a disruption and the breakout of mass confusion. Oh, and the class is at 8am, so most students aren't even completely awake by then.
But this alone isn't the source of my anger. We received the results from our first midterm just last week. I scored a 72%. Not great, but the average came in at 68%. The students in my curriculum are some of the most intelligent students in the school - so doing above average on these exams with these classmates is acceptable. I wasn't thrilled with my grade, and saw a few things I thought the graders had been a bit harsh on, so I shot Dr. Smith (not real name) an email asking if he was available to meet.
He was cordial enough. He responded almost immediately, asking me to stop by his office sometime that afternoon. Unfortunately, his office is a solid 15 minute walk from my apartment, through a bunch of confusing medical school classrooms and lecture halls. I made it, eventually.
Now Dr. Smith is not only an entitled jerk, but he also resembles a gremlin. He's about five feet tall, and has some seriously greased back wispy 80s hair, about half of which is almost gone. His voice is also unusually high pitched. I realized all of this strange things more clearly about him as he closed his office door and welcomed me. He started off by asking me how I liked the program and how I was doing. I responded by saying I love the program and I love the material, and so far I've garnered a 3.5 GPA and hope to apply to med school and continue my scholarship with the Navy.
Dr. Smith looked at me quizzically before responding, "Justin, I think that is just so below you."
I was so stunned I didn't respond. I've been with the Navy for three years, and I have accepted a medical school scholarship. My ambition is to become the first Marine doctor (the Marines typically use Navy doctors, but that's a tale for another day).
"....Okay."
Dr. Smith continued, obviously either he didn't care about my objections, or he was too dull to notice. "The Service comes here and they think they can just coerce our students into joining the service. I think you can do so much better than that, and you should aim high."
I was grinding my teeth. I could feel my heartbeat in my head. How can anyone say that? How can any citizen of this country tell me that joining the service and serving my country is below me? Obviously the man was attempting to inspire me to reach as high as I could. Even as I write this I realize I'm losing some of my fire. He then proceeded to open my exam and scoff at my first diagram drawing. I can't draw for SHIT, okay? The left half of my brain might as well be dead. My diagram looked like something a Roach ate and then spit up all over the paper - but it was schematically correct. He began to nitpick at every pencil mark, claiming my A-T base pair was slightly tilted, and that hydrogen bonds couldn't occur if the ring atoms were drawn too far apart.
Furious, I stood up. I was fed up. I couldn't sit in this room anymore.
"With all due respect, sir, I don't think serving one's country is below anyone. I'll see you in lecture on Monday."
At this point, it was awkward, because he was still resting his arm on my exam. I think at this point, he realized my ambition for the Military was more than just some back up plan I was doing because I had been coerced into it. He handed me my exam and I left the office without another word.
Did I overreact? I have never felt so offended and angry in one single moment as I did in that office. Have any of you dealt with such a bigoted and eccentric professor before?
UGH. Thanks TL!
 
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From time to time you encounter the occassional person that, for whatever reason, seems to lack any capacity to understand other people's perspectives and cannot place the needs or opinions of others on the same level of importance as their own. It can be a very frustrating experience. I wish I knew how to deal with people like that myself; I'm related to one and it is extremely trying at times. I don't have an answer as to how to deal with them other than to consider it an exercise in developing tact, patience and tolerance.
Best of luck with your career in the service, I think that's a very noble and worthy end.
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Discrimination of veterans is illegal and disgusting. I'd contact http://aver.us/aver/ and also encourage you to contact your Dean and report his blatant discrimination. I'm not in the service but as a citizen I'm deeply offended.
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Yeah i can relate. I had a fairly obnoxious lecturer myself last semester, but i just gritted my teeth, made sure I had minimal contact with him and completed the subject.
From what it seems, despite the fact that you were insulted you didn't lash out and managed to be courteous in the face standoffish behavior. From my perspective it's your win.
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On February 20 2012 15:16 Mr. Nefarious wrote:Discrimination of veterans is illegal and disgusting. I'd contact http://aver.us/aver/ and also encourage you to contact your Dean and report his blatant discrimination. I'm not in the service but as a citizen I'm deeply offended.
rofl what? sure his prof seems like a pretentious cunt but I didn't get the vibe OP felt he was being discriminated against
being in the navy i'd imagine OP knew how to deal with insufferable people in positions of power...just suck it up for a quarter unless he does something that is explicitly wrong
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Sounds like you get your emotions get in front of your head.
Sometimes you gotta suck it up for certain priorities.
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On February 20 2012 15:34 polishedturd wrote:Show nested quote +On February 20 2012 15:16 Mr. Nefarious wrote:Discrimination of veterans is illegal and disgusting. I'd contact http://aver.us/aver/ and also encourage you to contact your Dean and report his blatant discrimination. I'm not in the service but as a citizen I'm deeply offended. rofl what? sure his prof seems like a pretentious cunt but I didn't get the vibe OP felt he was being discriminated against being in the navy i'd imagine OP knew how to deal with insufferable people in positions of power...just suck it up for a quarter unless he does something that is explicitly wrong
I don't think I will be reporting him for discrimination - as I certainly didn't feel as though he was discriminating against me in particular - although I'm certain if he had known I was already a member of the service he would have watched what he said.
I may mention it to the Dean, however. It was the complete lack of appreciation and understanding for those men and women giving their lives so he can sit in his cute little office and make comments like that.
I don't get it.
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people are going to disagree with your intentions to join/be in the military....a lot of people....MOST people, in my experience. in many peoples eyes, saying that you want to be in the military is akin to saying you want to be a slave of the politicians and mindlessly murder children..
you kinda need to accept that and move on from that initial disagreement, as your professor did, to your diagram. you can try asking yourself how the morning would have progressed if you had remained in that room and listened/talked with him a bit more....
on one hand its awesome to get angry and to stand up for yourself, on the other, maybe you should have stayed in that room and talked to him instead of storming out.
anyway i dont mean to come across as mean. just know that in MY world, people sidle away from people who say they want to be in the military; its not an unusual dispute and you need to figure it out and deal with it/have something to say in response to it, rather than getting flustered
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I think, that you did the right thing (or at least carried out an action that would be better then what most of us would do). I too, wish to serve for my country one day, and I truly respect your decision to. I cannot fathom how...obnoxious and... condescending your professor was. I can see how people should aim high, but you are aiming high. The professor is just too blind to see it. However, I've never actually met your professor, so I can't really condemn him, but I don't think you overreacted. I'm pretty sure that if someone said something to slap us in the face like him against everything we believe in, then your reaction would seem as an underreaction.  I'm afraid that you'll have to study super hard for this class, but it'll be worth it. When you're done with this class, you can just forget your professor and do what you want to do. However, try not to aggravate him any further, since that would only cause more problems. You'll probably meet more people like him, I guess you'll have to civilly ignore them or something.
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On February 20 2012 15:40 FFGenerations wrote:
you kinda need to accept that and move on from that initial disagreement, as your professor did, to your diagram. you can try asking yourself how the morning would have progressed if you had remained in that room and listened/talked with him a bit more....
My exam grade is unhappy with me :/.
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On February 20 2012 15:40 dGHaiL wrote:Show nested quote +On February 20 2012 15:34 polishedturd wrote:On February 20 2012 15:16 Mr. Nefarious wrote:Discrimination of veterans is illegal and disgusting. I'd contact http://aver.us/aver/ and also encourage you to contact your Dean and report his blatant discrimination. I'm not in the service but as a citizen I'm deeply offended. rofl what? sure his prof seems like a pretentious cunt but I didn't get the vibe OP felt he was being discriminated against being in the navy i'd imagine OP knew how to deal with insufferable people in positions of power...just suck it up for a quarter unless he does something that is explicitly wrong I don't think I will be reporting him for discrimination - as I certainly didn't feel as though he was discriminating against me in particular - although I'm certain if he had known I was already a member of the service he would have watched what he said. I may mention it to the Dean, however. It was the complete lack of appreciation and understanding for those men and women giving their lives so he can sit in his cute little office and make comments like that. I don't get it.
I don't know, the way you describe it I don't find his behaviour particularly offensive. It seems he was misreading the situation and trying to pay you a compliment by saying you could do better, not knowing you were already in service. The fact that he doesn't see the military as the most prestigious goal for students doesn't mean he disrespects people serving their country.
There's always going to be people that are going to disagree with military involvement in any form or shape, I think you have to respect their POV and not let it further complicate your life.
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honestly you come off just as disrespectful as he did, but you're just upset so w/e. Generally profs are jerks but they actually are entitled to respect because they've went through a lot to get to that point. also the guy was just trying to give you encouragement in his own way, I don't see how he was being this "ultimate jerk" like you built him up to be....
Also hydrogen bonds can't occur if atoms are too far apart or if they're misorientated/titled. In my nucleic acids class that was kind of a big deal since its kind of the basis of interaction. That is definitely worth a few marks taken off, you probably should of memorized the diagram in your notes better
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You did fine. Sounds like you kept your cool and had the perfect comeback, addressing the main issue he seems to have, his ideas about serving the military. Sorry you're disappointed with the exam, but beating the average in a graduate level class is not shabby. There's nothing to be disappointed with there.
Serving one's country deserves the highest respect, thank you for doing so.
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On February 20 2012 16:18 askTeivospy wrote:
Also hydrogen bonds can't occur if atoms are too far apart or if they're misorientated/titled. In my nucleic acids class that was kind of a big deal since its kind of the basis of interaction. That is definitely worth a few marks taken off, you probably should of memorized the diagram in your notes better
No shit they can't occur, but how do you decide whether a drawing on a piece of paper is drawn 'to scale' or not to determine whether they're too far apart? The problem was that the prof thought he drew structures too far apart, when there's no scale to structures drawn on a test. The OP knew where the H-bonds should be, penalizing someone because their ring is slightly crooked or too far away is nit-picking at the art of the drawing, not the understanding that is represented. I study chemistry and sure some of my bonds are a little long, but I'd be pissed if I had a prof take off for that. It's hard to draw a structure entirely to scale, and in the grand scheme of truth, stretching a H-bond is better than stretching a C-C bond to get something to line up.
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On February 20 2012 16:18 askTeivospy wrote:
Also hydrogen bonds can't occur if atoms are too far apart or if they're misorientated/titled. In my nucleic acids class that was kind of a big deal since its kind of the basis of interaction. That is definitely worth a few marks taken off, you probably should of memorized the diagram in your notes better
Appreciate your input. In my defense, I was just using an example off the top of my head - didn't want to waste space explaining something I can't show you. It wouldn't have mattered what he said at that point though, I was pretty rattled.
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Sympathetic
Professors everywhere can be douchebags, and once they have tenure they're not afraid to let you know what they think. And I don't think any of them like talking about grades. They're generally much happier to talk with students who got a poor mark & want to figure out what they did wrong than they are a student who got above average and wants to bump up their grade.
Never lose your cool though (that includes walking out). Intellectuals enjoy trolling, they're professional trolls, and you don't want to get provoked into doing something stupid just because they know how to push your buttons.
I wouldn't make a public thing out of it unless he flunks you or threatens to flunk you, in which case you should invoke every administrative avenue available, and get your adviser/faculty on your side early on.
If you do talk again, you can at least tell him that you don't need his paternalism, just his expertise on the curriculum. He will probably take this the wrong way, but it would at least be a flag on his unprofessionalism.
Probably don't want to probe a debate about the Marines... I can see it ending with him shouting before you ever get a word in.
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Unsympathetic
On the flip side, he's your elder. He thinks you're misguided, that your talents are wasted. He's used to standing in front of dozens of young people every day and just saying whatever comes to mind, without challenge.
He probably knows more about you than you do. He's been where you've been, and has had many more years to reflect on his youth.
Grade-grubbing is sinful. Prof doesn't owe you any favors.
The teacher in him wants to see you leave the Marines and pursue academics (for the glory of science!).
The intellectual in him wants to see if you can defend your ideology in debate. (You declined the invitation.)
Are you an undergrad? If so, I'd say bend over and take it quietly, it's not your place to raise rabble -- and you will probably regret your performance later on (sorry). Otherwise, take him to school: he's not yo daddy.
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Verdict
As upsetting as this was for you, I don't think it's a big deal. You should be mature enough to deal with people who disagree with you on significant issues, at least enough to continue a conversation. If he's baiting you for debate, you can decline and insist that you talk about the course.
It was unprofessional of him, but your getting flustered and walking out was melodramatic and childish. Aren't the Marines made of sterner stuff, or does he intimidate you? Learn to roll.
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You definitely overreacted. While some people may think that "serving your country" through military service is commendable and patriotic (whereas a normal doctor or researcher isn't?), he was complimenting you by saying that you're capable of more than what doctors of the military do/accomplish. That's not a knock on those doctors, but a simple reality.
The aspect of raging and not taking the brunt of his comment shows a lack of conviction in your choice. One behind an ideal is able to withstand criticism and reasonably debate that which they are proud of, confident in, and knowledgeable about. Spouting your statement and leaving gives doubt and is either a show of immaturity and feebleness, or that perhaps he struck a cord with you.
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On February 20 2012 16:55 divito wrote:
... he was complimenting you by saying that you're capable of more than what doctors of the military do/accomplish. That's not a knock on those doctors, but a simple reality.
Unless he was flattering the OP (doubtful), it sounds like an overt knock on the military to me.
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Typical miscommunication imho.
The professor saw you as a student. Someone seeking advice from a mentor such as him.
You see him as a condescending person that you have to deal with.
He says "that's beneath you" in his advice giving role. You then respond with "Okay .." instead of properly articulating your feelings. He goes on with lecturing you until you burst.
edit: Also you have to understand while many academics have a certain disdain for the military. It encourages following rules and integrating yourself in a group instead of emphasizing critical thinking which is kind of what academics do.
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You seem like an intelligent person. How can that infuriate you?
Now i dont know THAT much about the US but you seem to be another victim of the nationalistic US propaganda
"With all due respect, sir, I don't think serving one's country is below anyone"
I dont want to insult you, but with that sentence you made yourself sound like a massive fool, like a brainwashed/coerced brute from the military(your prof probably felt so as well)
Serving your country? Come on thats ridiculous. Say you were a doctor right now, how it the seven fucks would you "serve" your country more by being a doctor in the military instead of being a regular one? Unless of course you are supportive of US warmongering(like in the bush era)
And your prof might be eccentric. But i wouldnt call his behaviour in any way bigoted, much rather yours in fact
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He was trying to encourage you, not belittle you. It seems he made his dislike of the military more vocal than you may be used to, but regardless he had good intentions. Perhaps he simply phrased it poorly - people sometimes say things wrongly in life. If you get infuriated every time someone offends you accidentally or even purposefully, that will be terrible for you in so many situations.
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Seems like he had some bad past with the military.
When you talk to old people, you have to account for the fact that they may have emotional baggage with them that you might not understand either. That or they've become more cynical than you and they make a bad attempt at hiding it.
I do understand your perspective and don't think you overreacted. Good luck in your studies.
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EPT
