Friday, September 21, 2007

Rant

A short mother’s rant. One of Tom’s profs at WMU, his main prof, infamous for his arrogance, told him this week, at the end of a discussion, “Tom, I’ve never hit a student before, but you’re pushing me.” In a few hours I’ll feel better, I’ll have some good plan about how to handle the jerk, but right now I’m a little hot. Conflict is not a Keranen strong suit. Tom thinks he’d be better off switching schools. Me, I want to torch the guy, burn his famous little pants off his ass. But certainly a kinder, gentler plan will come to mind. Suggestions?

6 comments:

Rachel said...

Hire somebody to kick his ass. Make sure it's a redneck, because they will do it for a relatively small amount of money, and once you pay them, they'll never turn on you in court. :)

R. Sanford said...

Switch schools? Because of one professor in one class? Seems a tad ridiculous.

Doing well in the class and moving on as quickly as possible is probably the most practical approach, though I personally wouldn't have the self control to be so mature in that particular situation. If that type of behavior / dialog continues, there are people at every university, I would think, ready to accept a well-articulated and documented complaint.

Charmi said...

It's a little more complicated than that. When I said his main prof, I meant his main prof. He'll have this guy every semester for private music lessons (a 4-credit-hour class each time) every semester until he graduates. This guy also has a big say in which musical groups Tom is allowed to play with. And on and on...

We've talked to a few people in the university music world. A letter is being sent up the chain of command, all the way to student services. The guy is a department head. He probably will end up switching schools, but not quietly.

For Tom's personal amusement, and in honor of the fall equinox, we had a nice little bon fire last night complete with straw man who was burned in effigy. His paper sack head wouldn't stay on his shoulders, so we shoved it up his ass.

Jennifer said...

Ahh, yes. When trying to make small talk with one of my high school chemistry teachers (I sat uncomfortably while he dug paper piles on his desk to find my homework), I casually said, "a bit crazy huh?" He stopped, looked right at me and told me to get out of his damn face. Then he proceeded to tell me I was a smart person and that I could make it far in life, but I would need a lot of help getting there. I still hate him, and recently he was in the paper for being a great teacher. I left his room crying.

Charmi said...

Yep, there are a lot of jackasses in the world. The question is when do you need to grin and bear it and when do you need to strike back?

I'm pretty upset still, mainly because Tom is questioning his own musical worth. Now he's thinking maybe he's not good enough, maybe he should switch degrees. Why, oh why, do we constantly believe others when they tell us who we are?!!!

Rachel said...

Wow, if he's going to have that extensive of an impact on Tom's educational and professional life, perhaps switching schools is not as extreme as it first sounded. In some programs, your adviser or main prof can make or break you. Especially if he's planning on going to grad school.