I have noticed that there is a direct correlation between the age of a professor and the contempt that they appear to hold for their students. My two favorite courses — in one of which I have been exposed to virtually no new concepts and in the other of which I have learned a great amount — are both taught by two of the younger professors that I have. Two of the courses that I favor the least are taught by two of the older professors that I have.
To retain my sanity, I’ve had to come to regard class time as a form of entertainment. With some exceptions for which I am grateful, nearly every class consists of the professor lecturing on the topic of the assigned reading. Generally, no new concepts are introduced, such that anybody that read and comprehended the material is unlikely to gain anything from the class. Consequently, an engaged and enlivening professor is a welcome thing, indeed.
The unfortunate thing is that, with the loss of engaging teaching that often accompanies aging, the cynicism of seeing decades of disinterested teemagers pass by can take hold, which is manifested in varying degrees in the manner in which the professor interacts with the class.
I have one course in which the professor actively insults students, right in front of the quite-sizeable class. It’s a form of sport to him. I’m yet to end up on the wrong end of one of his withering barbs, but I witness this with enough frequency to know that their effect on the individual student can be quite severe. In another, the professor has not yet progressed to this point, instead prefering to make sweeping generalizations about the class as a whole, or specific portions thereof, delivered somewhat in the style of Steven Wright-meets-Ben Stein, thus making clear his collective damnation of us all.
The odd thing is that it is these most bitter of professors that have the most knowledge. Their CVs are impeccable. They’ve been published in a variety of scholarly journals. Presumably, they have wisdom to impart that considerably exceeds that of the younger, less-experienced teachers. Why they choose not to do so is unknown to me, but I can only imagine that it is, quite simply, because they’re sick of students. (And who can blame them? I’m sick of students and I’ve only been here for six weeks.)
The moral of the story, for me, is that I should try to take courses with younger professors. Since the information provided is going to be more or less the same no matter what — the information contained within the book — having a teacher that is excited about teaching and that still labors under the impression that they can make a difference in students’ lives can make all of the difference.