Does the math teacher make the difference?

[Jorriss]

I think if your paying to go to a school to learn something you should do both independent study and lectures.

Some people really do benefit from just independent study and for this student, when he needed help, he went to office hours.

 

[mathwonk]

you are missing the point. no matter what you think is preferable, you are not going to succeed in school if you do not attend class. we are not discussing whether that is what you think is reasonable, I am telling you how to succeed. Besides, if you are paying tuition to a school where the lectures have nothing to offer, you are a sucker.

 

[mathwonk]

To the student who got the low grade for missing class: it is possible you can appeal this grade and have it changed. At my university the university guidelines say that you can be dropped from a class for lack of attendance, so it is part of the written rules that attendance is expected. However I believe it is also a policy that the instructor must distribute a written syllabus in which he explains his attendance policy and the basis for his grading system. If this is the case at your university, I think you would have case that the written syllabus which was distributed should be the one that must be followed for grading that course. It is always worth a try, but you need to be polite to everyone involved if you hope to succeed. The first step in any such appeal is usually to simply speak to the instructor and make your case, as diplomatically, but clearly, as possible.

 

[daveyinaz]

I'm 100% positive that a professor has a MILLION better things to do then to punish one student who didn't go to lecture.

How can you be so positive? Are you the professor whom bpatrick is referring to? It's kind of sad really that you think there are "better" things to do rather than concern yourself with helping a struggling student as an educator/instructor/professor/teacher/whatever, especially one who has clearly shown potential since he was able to get good grades without attending classes.

Do I think that it's stupid that someone who performed well in the class got an F because he didn't go to lecture. Of course. But did bpatrick not have the responsibility as a student to make sure that this was ok? He noticed he got a syllabus with the wrong year at the top, it would have been a good idea to clarify with the professor that this was indeed the correct syllabus, especially if he planned to never go to lecture at all.

I definitely agree with you on this point. There are a variety of routes bpatrick could have taken where the end result might have been different.


Furthermore, comments like this have no place here...

Are you like 5 years old?

I always chuckle at remarks like this because I'm pretty sure someone like you wouldn't have the sack to say it to my face in person.

I have ZERO sympathy for the guy. Sucks, but if you're going to take a semester long vacation, it'd be a good idea to keep up with the professor. The professor is teaching hundreds of kids I'm sure. It isn't his job to make sure that one student who never bothered to class showed up.

Making statements about having zero sympathy for people certainly tells more about you than anything else said in this discussion so far. To be so arrogant as to think that anyone was asking for your sympathy is mind boggling when it seems that bpatrick's intention was a "lessons learned" kind of story and not one of "feel pity for me". Plus you do not know the whole story as neither do I to conclude definitively what really happened.

Anyways, this whole discussion is off topic, and I apologize for making it so.

On the contrary, I don't think anything said so far has been so off topic that merited an apology. It is clear now that teachers do make a difference, in so far as much, as random strangers are debating them on this very forum.

 

[mathwonk]

I think this is very much off topic. The gentleman made it about his personal gripe, instead of a general discussion.

 

[daveyinaz]

I think this is very much off topic. The gentleman made it about his personal gripe, instead of a general discussion.

That's your opinion, I still stand by my statement that it was not. The issue is; does a [math] teacher make a difference? It was a personal story where the teacher did make a difference. $$\blacksquare$$

 

[mathwonk]

he never heard a word the teacher said. the difference was only in the grade. it is hard to imagine how much farther off topic that could be, in a discussion which presumably was about how a teacher is crucial to learning. but i do not expect you to agree.

 

[daveyinaz]

he never heard a word the teacher said. the difference was only in the grade. it is hard to imagine how much farther off topic that could be, in a discussion which presumably was about how a teacher is crucial to learning. but i do not expect you to agree.

Yes, it would be hard for me to agree when one can read the post that started it all...

I was at my school's tutoring center and heard these two guys agreeing on how math teachers make a huge difference on how well you're going to do in whatever math class you're taking. Do you agree or disagree?

I bolded the part that said how well you are going to do...which includes grades.