Today's Lesson: I Want to Keeel You Dead

[sigerson]

I took my weaving course this weekend. I now know how to thread a loom, weave, and will learn how to remove it later.

I also know that I do not want to encounter this teacher any more, ever. (Besides the part where I *have* to, in order to give her back spare chenille yarn.)

First, the 'teaching' bit was never fully engaged. The talking randomly about one subject, jumping to another, giving indistinct instructions about what we might do at one point...that was full on. Questions occasionally encouraged a response disparaging "Cambridge students and their desire to know *why* rather than just *do* it". Refusing to inspect student work when they found a mistake, to help correct, and instead just saying "Well, you must have screwed up earlier. Start over." Giving incomplete instructions to one set of students, then giving complete and somewhat contradictory ones to another set.

Two people did not complete the class. So the main topic of conversation from her was 'how weaving isn't for everyone, how some people just can't do it, how some people don't have their minds in the right place, how some people just can't seem to shift from right brain to left brain...' Look, lady. They left because they were frustrated, upset, near tears in one case, and felt that they were receiving no help. Not because they were 'not weaving people'.

And the piece de resistance? Bigotry. Not of the hatred kind, but of the damning with compliments. Yup.

(To a Brazilian student, who later left) "You know, some people hold ethnic stereotypes, but all the Brazilians on the Vineyard are very hardworking. They clean the island, they cook, they work very hard." (She went on in this vein for a bit. Later she asked how his English was, then disparaged it after he left.)

"Laotians, they're the no-problem people. I have a Laotian assistant, and she's always smiling, always happy, always so innovative with saving money. So they're the No Problem people."

"Whenever I see an Asian face, I'm just in heaven. You know, Asians have a natural facility for fiber work."

"When I worked in XX, with the community making tapestries, we never had any trouble with young men of un-American ethnicity. But American young men didn't want to do any weaving..."

Huh. Oh gee, I'm not a bigot! I love those little brown people! (No, she didn't say that.)

I just don't get it. She probably thinks I'm prickly, because after the third or fourth time, I felt absolutely no need to be polite to her.

Comments

[nadyezhda.livejournal.com]

Okay, this is the kind of thing you report. Seriously. Please do this, for all the students who can't- it's so incredibly rude.

Sorry you didn't get what you wanted, and hope you find another class that will work for you... and good luck, I really think what you've said right here would be enough for a well-earned reprimand at the least.

[ltlbird.livejournal.com]

I was gonna say the same thing. You've suffered through the class, but no one else should have to. Call whoever you can and complain, because if they can find someone else to teach the course, they really should. Ick.

I don't know who sponsored the class, but I feel that such issues are a real problem with so-called adult education. The community of students is generally too weak for word of mouth to spread about bad instructors, and students may be disinclined to report poor teaching, since they figure they'll just finish out the class and then won't have to deal with it anymore.

[cincodemaygirl.livejournal.com]

Word, word, word. Whoever this class was through, you need to let them know that the instructor they've hired is a) incompetent b) a raging bigot and c) insane. Mail her the freaking chenille, and lobby to get your tuition back, and don't go to the second class.

gaaah....

[anu3bis.livejournal.com]

Find a few other students who were as pissed off BEFORE the next class, and see what you can learn together - like how to find a better teacher. I'll be generous and say this person may know weaving...but she doesn't know how to teach. It's sad how many teachers step forward on the basis of having knowledge of their subject without having spent even the minimum time on how to pass that knowledge on.

Apart from that, you can give the chenille to one of the students actually attending the class and ask them to give it back without having to enter her zone of bad karma.

Psst...if you want to meet for lunch and detox, we can meet any day . Ulterior motive? I'm cooking up a new game idea...