Professors Just Have A LOT Of Feelings

Never doubt the power of course evaluations, Quakers. Sure, they unlock your grades and provide future generations with difficulty ratings, but they also go straight to your profs' hearts. Think your comments through, or you may get a strongly-worded, passionate email to the listserv of a class that ended six months ago calling you out.

And oh boy, is that what happened with a certain JWST course. One professor has not taken kindly to his evaluations and sent out what can only be described as a well-written rant (filled with legit points). One kid's evaluation called the prof fell "woefully short" (fighting adverb!) of expectations – he/she had no motivation since it was so easy to get a good grade.

"It really saddens me to think that you -- whoever you are -- think of your education as little more than a mechanical process whereby you can get a good grade point average," scolded the prof. He continued to decry the "'read this or you will perish in this course, bla-ha-ha!!!!!' dimension" of Penn classes.

We gotta hand it to the dude who must be one of the most dedicated educators at Penn. Check out the email's full text, complete with Céline Dion reference, 

Hello everyone,

I recently was able to view the online evaluations/comments many of you offered from our [course] together last fall. I want to thank you for constructive suggestions, especially regarding using power-points and more rigorous course structuring. In the past, I have shied away from relying too much on that because I often feel that it locks us into a too-rigid structure, and doesn't give us the flexibility that I like when we have fruitful discussions in class leading us in different directions. But I see your (respective) points, and I will give greater thought to striking a better balance.

For the one person who said that I fell "woefully short" in teaching because the class was too easy and thus there was "no incentive" to do the readings or pay attention -- well, I am sorry you feel that way. But think for a second about what that argument really means. What you're really saying is that the ONLY reason to learn something is because otherwise you won't get a good grade. And you have also implicitly claimed that the only way to motivate a student into learning is to scare the hell out of them with the threat of failure.

Do you really feel that way?

I am happy that most of the students really had a good experience in the course, and I know that it's impossible to please everybody all the time. But it really saddens me to think that you -- whoever you are -- think of your education as little more than a mechanical process whereby you can get a good grade point average. Of course, getting good grades matters, I know it does.

However...learning how to think critically and walking away with an understanding of ideas or events that sheds light on why the world is the way it is -- that's more important. And in the last 16 years of doing this, I have found that most people are able to have this kind of experience when you remove the "read this or you will perish in this course, bla-ha-ha!!!!!" dimension of a given class's courseload.

So it hurts me, a lot, that you didn't have the sort of experience YOU wanted. I don't want to fail in the eyes of any of my students; one is too many. But I urge you to consider the tenor of your comment calling into question my strategy and low-pressure approach to this material. Not because I am upset by it (somehow, my heart will go on...) but because your other comments reveal you to be a very intelligent, attentive and serious student, and I want you to succeed not just in school but in LIFE. A big step in that direction is looking beyond the surface topography of something and determining its intrinsic value, and how thinking about it, studying it, and CARING about it might be worth something even greater than the grade it can give you.

I wish you ALL only the best. My time with you at Penn was one of the greatest experiences of my life. I am honored that some of you feel the same.

With genuine affection and deep respect,

[Prof's First Name]