ened.The situation I just described can be closely related to the situation in Christian Zawodniak’s essay, “I’ll Have To Help Some of You More Than I Want To”. The English professor, Jeff, had problems with the power issue, as well. He came into class wearing sneakers and jeans and acting as if he were on the same level as the students. In the beginning of the class this made the students feel like they could really relate to him. While reading the essay, I was thinking “Hey, I would like to have this guy for a teacher.” But not for long. His attitude turned into one of not caring, instead of being laid back. He didn’t give the students enough guidance, yet he wanted them to make good decisions. He helped the students out every once in awhile, but once they were started he would just stare off into space. He didn’t seem to have any desire to help them. When Jeff told the students “I’ll have to help some of you more than I want to”, he was trying to give the impression that he could not do everything, but would try. As time went on, it became apparent to the students that he was simply being lazy. “. . . Jeff’s statement reflected both dispassion and fatigue” (128). I had a teacher similar to this for two years in high school. Her name was Mrs. Distler, and she has been my least favorite teacher up to this point. (We used to call her Mrs. Bitchler). She would give us ridiculous assignments, that we had no idea how to do, and leave us to figure it out. For example, the AP English exam. We did, maybe, two weeks of preparation for it. The rest of the year was spent watching movies and making posters. She wanted to give us the impression that she was an easy, but effective teacher. This was not the case.I think she taught only to make herself look good. She didn’t care whether we learned or not. We were prepared well enough to ...
