I have mixed feelings about the new “Terrible Teacher” meme. It’s really hard not to say some of these things. Sometimes turning a question back to a student is good andragogy (the word pedagogy should only be applied to children). Students who treat community college like high school contribute to snarky or sarcastic responses.
Teachers who don’t own the classroom can get abused, and the learning of everyone there suffers. On the other hand, I’ve had teachers say many of these things. And the indirect methods popular in many progressive composition classrooms lends itself to just these kinds of abuse. I remember with bile as a student hearing some of these things.
To quote the TV doctor House,”I get to ask the questions. That makes me look smarter. You have to answer them. When you ask the questions ..” I forgot how it ended, but it was pithy and sharp as heck. These memes do ask some really good questions though.
BTW: expect 2 weeks to get you papers back. I have over a hundred students, and I read every paper 3 times. That’s what it generally takes. Composition teachers have a lot more work to do in assessing student work than students realize.
