Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Oppression...at University! (In PRESENT Day)

We learned that in colonial times and the Great Depression the education system were painfully unequal. Certain classes of people were also very oppressed. These oppressed students were not allowed unless told, they had to listen to the teacher talk talk talk then regurgitate whatever they were taught. There is a whole lot more to their oppressive past but I would like to talk about our situation here and now at a particular class at GSU.
There is a particular course I am currently enduring (not by choice) in which our professor is on the verge of robotizing us! Each Monday, Wednesday, and Friday afternoon, we reluctantly await some kind of oppressive drama or better put kindergarten charade. We are all adults in this class. There are about twenty two of us and so far it appears to me that we are a well-behaved group. However, we are treated like kids by our professor. Here is a compact list of some of what occurs in our room.
1.Student wishes to leave room for short period-professor stops to see who and at times asks where?!
2.Someones phone vibrates -professor stops to see to whose it is and make a comment or a request
3. Student wears blue tooth to class (not in use), asked to remove it
4.Student talking on phone at least 15 minutes before class, asked to take conversation outside or stop. We are told we can talk to each other before class starts but not on the phone.
5.During midterm students not allowed to use their own blue lined paper. They must use the ones he provide. We are not allowed to have any on our desk either ...unless they were given to us by him.
6.We are not allowed to attend school functions if its during his time, even if its for 15-20 minutes. Once 3 of us attended this recently held function on campus and he stopped the class after we entered to discuss and complain... laying out more new oppressive rules. These functions are held on schools days and during class periods , so in order for us to participate we must attend in one way or another.
7. It is hard for us to take notes, because he uses only slides and he moves them so swiftly. If we try to get notes from our classmates he complains or queries. (Is that for class?)
8. If we whisper occasionally to ask out classmate for anything, he wants to know whats its about!
Most, if not all discussions are done by him and mainly him alone. This professor is annoying us. It seems everything bothers him. He sees everything and hears everything. (Worst part ...he is NOT old!) What would you call this kind of situation, if not oppression?

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