I once read an evaluation written by a student who was trying to give me some constructive criticism. What she really did, though, was explain the main cause of the dissatisfaction felt by many students in her class. (I say ’she’ and ‘her’ because I know who it was; I recognized her handwriting.)
She started out with “You are a very nice person” (obviously softening the blow), then added, “but your job is to make Spanish class fun”.
WHAT?!
My job is to teach the Spanish language and the cultures of Spanish-speaking countries. In pre-school, learning is supposed to be fun. In kindergarten, learning is supposed to be fun. But college-level courses are supposed to teach you something. Period.
That’s not to say that I don’t like to have fun in my classes; I often include interactive exercises, games and songs in my lessons. Some topics (the past tense of irregular verbs, for instance) are just not fun, but you have to learn them anyway. If you don’t, you will sound like a doofus when you try to speak. (At the very least, your grade will suffer.) If you hang in there, we will do some activities that will reinforce those irregular verbs, but I can’t make the grammar fun, even if I stand on my head.
I started thinking about the classes I’ve taken. I made a list of the top 5, and I can’t say that any of them were fun. What do you think?
Spanish Conversation: two days a week of conversations about pre-selected topics, plus we had to record our exams. That made me so nervous that I would get a stomachache. Then, every Friday we had pronunciation practice. Each time we practiced two consonants and one vowel and had to repeat, repeat, and repeat until our jaws ached.
Hitler/Fascism/Third Reich: lectures and so many notes that I got hand cramps. And there was a simulated air raid staged by the professor on an unused floor of the building. That was terrifying (and probably illegal).
History of the Spanish Language: lectures, notes and hand cramps again. Plus the occasional random tirade by the professor in which his face would turn purple and we would wonder if we needed to call 911.
Escritura (graduate-level writing course in Spanish): writing, revising, proofreading and critiquing other students’ work in class, more revising…I’m bored just writing the description, but the professor was dynamic and knowledgeable, and I learned a lot.
African American Womens’ History: the professor was on a lot of committees, and she was absent more often than she was in class, so she made up for it by adding to the reading list. But when she was in class, her lectures were fantastic.
Those are the classes that I remember vividly and that taught me the most. A big shout-out to Professors Scalise, Allshouse, Renahan, Amores and Bankole. Your classes were amazing, informative, fascinating, and thought-provoking…but definitely not fun.
