That's the way I like summing up my fleeting university experience. I remember there used to be three types of professors. The commonest and, perhaps, most annoying one was that who would dictate the class notes, a kind of individual that takes undergraduates for medieval monks. I could copy quite quickly, even if my notes weren't the most aesthetically pleasing ones, but, as I was always unsure about what I was jotting down, I would find my feet coming in the photocopy shop around the corner every now and then to ask for the previous year's notes. I would, then, compare both bundles to correct and complete my own.
The second type of professor was the lazy one: a life-tenured public employee that couldn't bother less about preparing a class. He'd rather hand out a bundle of papers and improvise: ramble about the alleged topic of the day for an hour without even using the blackboard, explaining key concepts or proposing practical exercises. Noam Chomsky is the public figure that best fits this type: he's a wonderful linguist yet a terrible communicator, incapable of catching the audience's attention for longer than one minute. No matter how much Linguistics interests you. Listening to him ramble is boring to tears.
Then, I would arrive home, read the handout on my own and make my own notes. I had wasted my time by attending that stupid class.
Finally, I remember the one that would display advanced techniques: a PowerPoint presentation. She would shout: 'do not copy! Just pay attention!' And that's what I would do: to pay attention. Then, she would email the presentation to us lot, but it was so simple that I couldn't use it to prepare for my exams. I was unsure about understanding the key concepts correctly, as some time had gone by since that class, and lacked the precise words to express myself appropriately. Therefore, I used to get down to the faculty's library, look for the definitions among the books and make my own notes again.
I claim full credit for my education.
I claim full credit for my education.
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