My math teacher is inconsiderate, presumptuous, and rude. I happen to be bad at math as well, and am likely going to fail the class.

Should I drop it?

ORIGINAL POST:

I am horrible in math. I have dyscalculia (along with mild dyslexia), I easily forget basic arithmetic principles, and I have a difficult time remembering simple things like my times table. (Despite all of that, I do wonderful in statistic classes, logic, and geometry.) I also blame my weakness on an early adoption of "Integrated" math by my grade school, completely ruining my foundation in math, setting me up for failure in the future.

Considering I'm already horrible in math classes, a lacking instructor tends to secure my failure in the class. Sure enough, I've been dealt one of the worst instructors I have ever encountered. The first week of class, we were stationed in a tiny old room on the edge of campus. It was confined, claustrophobic, and difficult to get my chair into. I rarely use disabilities services on campus for anything other than room changes, so I exercised my right, and had the room moved. Our wonderful teacher found that annoying, and considered me one of those poor disabled people that would cause nothing but problems for him.

That being the start of our relationship, I missed his class a couple of times due to my transportation's poor reliability. I would try to explain this to him later in his office, and he would completely ignore me, claiming that I was going to see the repercussions of missing the class. I rescheduled my transportation for an hour before I have to be there, and I still end up late at least once a week. They won't transport me before that time due to conflicts.

I spent 2 entire weeks in the student learning center (basically a tutor center) with my math homework. We went over every problem twice, and reinforced all of the concepts. The day of the test, I got to class, had the test in front of me, and froze up. I had no idea what to do all of the sudden. I half-robbed it, and put some answers on the paper. When collecting the test, he looks at mine "I told you."

A few weeks later, I worked my rob off again in the tutor center, take a practice test, and get 50% on it. I have trouble making my fancy shmancy calculator do some of the functions he asked us to do with it. I bring it in, he says "Get a new calculator, and stop trying to make things difficult or special."

The week of the exam, my wisdom teeth start coming in and pushing my teeth over, causing severe pain. If you recall, I am unable to get them removed due to the entire throat issue I'm dealing with. I contemplate playing the "crippled" card to get out of doing the test until I can get fully medicated and pain-free. Instead I decide to talk to him personally and explain the situation.

He looks at me, says simply "Well, it's 10% off each day you don't take it." and then closes his office door. I e-mail him later and he lets me come in during spring break and take it. I come in, widdle away at the test, but don't do nearly as well as I would've liked to. I staple what I think is my assignment to the back of the test, and put it in his mailbox. 2 weeks of class passes by, and he says to me "What is this? You think this is a joke?" Apparently I stapled my corrected English paper to the back of the test, and had placed the assignment behind my English papers. He thinks I'm trying to play some kind of a prank on him. I explain, and apologize. He says "Well, it's too late to hand it in, 10% off each day. It's worth no points" I also got 55% on the test.

This happened Friday. On Monday, I missed class, getting there just as it ended. I came from the lunch room to use the bathroom, and he saw me in the hall. "So are you dropping my class?" I looked at him confused "Well, if you aren't coming, and you don't even know how to do it, why bother failing? Just drop it." I wanted to ask him who he thought he was, and why he cared, since he gets paid either way. Instead I tried to explain that I had transportation issues. He rolled his eyes and walked away.

I find out 10 minutes later that a really important doctors appointment about my arthritis had to be moved up due to my doctor's tight time. Right in the middle of the math class. I tried to get to his office and explain it to him, but despite being in it, he wouldn't open the door. I write my situation on a note and tape it to his door.

Today he canceled class, but sees me in the hall. "I see you didn't feel like coming again yesterday. Do you feel like failing another exam?"

I think I should drop his class.

tl;dr

light him on fire in front of the class

Dyscalculia is a real thing? I thought they made it up for Degrassi.

Er anyway, you should probably drop the class. And give up math.

He sounds like a dick, complain to his superior and if that doesn't work, escalate it.

And seriously, while you complain about tl;dr in the chat, that could have been a LOT shorter.

Thanks, I'll try that.

My roommate is blind, and he had a similar issue with a jerk teacher. He went over the teachers head. The teacher's superior (the dean of that college) was very sympathetic and basically ripped that teacher a new one, including a formal apology. It was awesome. So...try that.

I'm sure you have an academic adviser or dean that you could take this issue to. They can usually do some form of magic that either makes the prof stop being a douche or helps with your situation. In any case, with your disability you should be able to get some amount of sympathy from someone in power who isn't a ****.

Also: have a look at what kind of damage to you/your GPA failing the class does versus dropping it. He wants you to drop the class so badly because part of his evaluation as a professor is how many students fail his class. So maybe if it isn't so bad for you to fail you can do it just to stick it to him.

On the next 60 Minutes: When Homeschooling is not the Answer.

You have a right for extra time on tests and such assuming your learning disability is documented. You should take advantage of it.

Math...?

I thought it was too until they told me they had it.
I would try talking to someone above the teacher if the teacher doesn't work with you. I've had teachers who were the same way, only I stayed in the classes, avoided talking to their superiors (in one case it was the head of the math dept. teaching and she was the worst of the bunch!) and failed them...but the third time was a charm! (I barely passed.)

College professors are often pressured to listen to student complaints on academic petitions. This is unlike public schools where teachers don't have to really care about what kids think because they aren't paid much; you are paying good money for college education so your voice should have grounds. I've seen college professors completely rework their class or how they teach due to student opinions when it comes to evaluations.

THen again, there could still be an issue if said professor has tenure. But good independent colleges should be more than happy to do something about academic woes and concerns, seeing that you are paying tuition.

But then again again, we are taking JediKirby's word that this teacher is a dick and he sees himself in an uncomfortable position with the class. THe reality could be the teacher is a nice guy and JediKirby is too full of himself to come forward, admit he has trouble following and ask for help. Who knows.

I didn't see your original post.


Isn't using a supposed condition as a crutch totally against your idealology?

Wow, why did you get rid of your whole post? Who cares if *****es say tldr, they don't have anything worth saying anyway.

Oh that makes sense. THere is more to the first post...

Actually now that it's so short it makes yoshi's post hilariously sarcastic.

Very much so. That's kind of why this is all a big issue for me. I don't want to claim "Wah, wah! I'm crippled and should get to miss class." I think I should be responsible for getting to school on time and in my seat. My problem is that, instead of being helpful and supportive, our teacher has been nothing but negative, belittling, and sarcastic. I am not the only student that has experienced this.

He's one of those teachers that lectures math, doesn't explain why a certain principle works a certain way, and if you ask him to explain something, he flat-out repeats himself, and then looks at you like you're stupid. He'll point at the answer several times, and say that it's just how you get the answer.

He considers helping students outside of class a bother (yet he advertises it, openly) and thinks everyone is out to get him. He claims that people are being disrespectful to him when anyone in the room would've considered the person's response reasonable.

He's a war vet, 4th in command in our state for one of the branches (It might be national guard) and talks down to everyone, including administration.

Take it up with the department head, principal, etc. This guy shouldn't be teaching, period.

This is a public community college.



Other math teachers have complained about him, but he hasn't been fired for this very reason.



I genuinely want to believe that we're just misunderstanding him, and he's just a quiet guy that doesn't know how to express himself so he sounds like a big jerk when he talks. Maybe that IS the case. But many of us have asked for help, and many of us feel he's been really difficult to deal with.

Over half of the class dropped after the 3rd week because he never answered questions they asked.

What is your "rob"..."half-robbed"..?

Oh.

I always believed community colleges seem to hire anybody. Maybe that's wrong, but good luck.



Do you have something like an "academic petition" or similar? Do you have an Academic Affairs office?




I made the post right after you edited it.

If people are dropping the class at an alarming rate, surely someone "higher-up" would notice and question.

Is this a required class in that you MUST take it now? Do you need the credits? I would just choose another class.

One of kirby's disabilities is that he thinks replacing curse words with relevant forum member names is funny, and does it all the time in an effort to make it catch on.

It's part of his crippling wantobeimportantoninternetia syndrome you insensitive jerk!

I'd say drop it and try for another teacher next semester. Still make sure to complain about him to someone higher up...it really couldn't hurt.

i think he's being reasonable. get off your lazy *** and find better transportation. if you cant, and you know missing class will screw you, why the **** did you register for a class?

either way, you're doing terribly on his tests (since, like you said, you suck at math), and your grade should reflect that. in other words, you shouldn't receive any grading handicaps for being a math retard. generally speaking, grades reflect how well you know the material, and that is especially true in math classes.

so you'll probably get a C, if he "understands". if you get what you deserve, you'll get an F. advice: suck it up and try harder, drop it like its hot, or get better transportation.

as far as transportation goes, I'm sure you know kirby doesn't have the ease we all do right?

as for the rest. teachers like that rely too much on textbook answers instead of real life stuff.

Math is textbook answers stuff..

yes but there's several logical ways to explain one concept. the end result is the same, but why do you think there are good math teachers and crappy ones? the ones that rely only on the end result are the bad ones.

The last math class I had was wonderful. If we didn't understand something, we'd spend a whole class period going over the concept until everyone understood. If part of the class felt they were spending all of their time waiting, she'd break people into two groups and help the ones who were behind.

I got a C in her class.

Also, I use people's names because it's more entertaining to me than ***

Maybe it's just because I understand math and always have that I just don't understand not getting math. Everything's so... matter of fact.

How is Kirby being lazy? He tried to fix his transportation, and he is seeing a tutor.

Learning disabilities do exist. Not everyone can just brute force information into their brain. You're as big a douchebag as the teacher.

Kirby is being a sajn
Authoriies, use them, get him fired.

Not really going to comment on the other issues other than the teaching itself, which sounds like crap and just give some general tips on how I learnt my maths.

Maths at every level can be totally and utterly confusing if not taught well. This is coming from someone who has done some pretty heavy maths in his time and had varyingly good teachers at high school, college and university.

If the lecturer is not going through problems explaining the all the relevant steps and why something is what it is (which btw should always be clear and re-workable and never taken for granted) then they are bad, plain and simple.

Every problem the teacher shows on the board, you should be able to do from what they have taught previously, if they EVER say "because it is" then they are being lazy, pick them up on it and make them explain it. When they do a problem on the board, do it yourself in your head or on a piece of paper, understand each step, don't just copy it down, work on the basics of the particular problem and the larger bits will fall into place.

Do not rely on calculators. I've known people with serious dyslexia and they have managed to live without calculators although it took a lot of work. Really try and learn the times table, my old teacher (at high school) used to time our class doing 1-12 randomly arranged times tables every other day, it really does help. Draw out a 12x12 box, randomly arrange the numbers up and down and fill in the boxes.

Math follows a clear and simple set of rules (it's always simple when you know them), the rules do not change, the problems always have a simple basis that build up to something more complicated.

If you let this guy get away being a slack teacher it really won't do you or anyone else that takes that class any favours in the future.

k, before I posted I thought I better look up Dyscalculia, not sure how bad you have it, but damn that's a ***** of a condition to have and would really screw up doing maths. Not sure what level of maths course you are doing but good on ya for trying. Can't really offer any advice other than to take your time whenever you are doing any calculation, equation or differentiation/integration. Most answers should always have a "simple" outcome, not be something like x = 2.342189033, examiners are lazy at heart, remember that and always look at your answer and double check, i.e. do the reverse calculation.

Others have provided plenty of advice on dealing with the teacher; I'll just say that if you think you're likely to fail the class, drop it. As far as I know you're not in a pass-or-don't-graduate situation, so there's not much reason to risk failing.

Was anyone else really distracted while reading that due to the pluralization of "math"? I don't know why that is so weird to me.

Yes, I was.

So? Doesn't mean educational standards should be lowered for them. A retard who gets an A in a class is NOT as competent as a normal kid getting the same grade. If they're retarded, they should take classes at their level, instead of getting sympathy (fake) grades in normal classes.

What's the highest level math you've taken? I've heard people say this, but then they completely fall apart at or after the calculus level.