So, at the beginning of the semester, I went up after class to my professors for stats and econ. I asked them if I could waive the class. They asked me about my coursework. I told them. They both said I could take another course if I liked, in a different department that would fulfill the same requirement, but I could not waive the course. I felt like I was caving in when I said “that’s okay, I’ll stay in this one.”
If I’m going to be covering fundamentally the same already-known information, I’d rather do it with classmates I know. This isn’t helping my classmates, and it isn’t helping me, really. So, today I got the first test back from my econ prof. On the first half, which was true or false with explanations, I was told that my explanations lacked depth and I lost points. I lost no points on the second half which was dealing with the exact concepts that she graded me as having ignored on the first half, in greater depth and specificity.
I went up to her after class and expressed my frustration. She said I should have opted into a different class. This reminds me a great deal of exit, voice & loyalty (still halfway through the book). Initially, I chose loyalty, while she recommended exit (to a course of dubious distinction relative to the one I’m taking). Eventually, I gave voice, and she reminded me that I’d chosen loyalty when exit was an option.
Nobody walked away from that conversation satisfied. Both she and my TA recommended that I just stop coming to class save for tests. So she’s not even pretending that she has something of value to teach me in this course. And yet the bureaucracy (value-non-neutral) cannot bend. Following the rules is more important than not wasting my time. I certainly see
I know the profs here have some experience, knowledge, and understanding which I would find valuable to attain. I wish I felt that were happening in all my classes, and for that matter, that it were happening efficiently and effectively in any of them. But either way, I’ll get a pretty piece of paper to hang on my cubicle wall at some point, and a network of friends and acquaintances in high places.