School, Work

It's Thursday, and it just happens to be the only day this week that I don't have school or work. But of course I'm working. On school shit. And when I say shit, I really mean it, because I'm not learning anything or doing anything productive. So here's the situation: I'm a graduate assistant for a class that's mostly freshmen. It should be no problem, even though the class has over 200 people in it (which is ridiculously irresponsible of the school, but whatever).

I have a couple of problems with this class. The first is that it is being taught by another grad student, who is in my graduate class, and he has never taught before, whereas I have. So, I have more teaching experience, more large class experience, and at least the same, if not more, knowledge on the subject, and somehow I'm his assistant. This is total bullshit, and only demonstrates how sexist and retarded the department is, and I'll probably bitch to someone about it later in the semester.

My second problem is that he is assigning all sorts of things that "don't count towards their grade", also known as "busywork". I have an ethical problem with this, because it is something I always hate as a student, something that makes me resent the professor and resist anything he's trying to teach because if the professor doesn't think it's important, why should I give a fuck about it? Plus, there is no greater insult than a professor who just wants to give you assignments for the sake of giving them, not to teach you anything. My time is valuable, and I expect the learning potential of each assignement to be valuable (i.e. important enough to grade).

The third problem is that all this busywork comes to me, and I'm supposed to read these assignments every week (over 200 people, remember). Actually, he said I could "scan" them, but what is the point of even looking at them if I'm not going to bother with their content? Again, the ethical question of assigning things that are actually important, because now I'm stuck with them, and the students are under the impression that they are being read. And graded, which they aren't. So I'm not reading them, because I'm a stubborn bitch. There are also quizzes that "don't count toward the grade", but for some reason, I'm supposed to keep track of who is taking it and how they are doing. What the fuck?

So to summarize, this dude is the worst teacher I have ever seen so far, and he has no idea how much he sucks. And I tried to tell him how unrealistic and unreasonable it is to think these things are all going to happen (partially because my GA contract stipulates that I'm not supposed to work more than 5 hours a week on this shit), but he tried to figure out how to make me do it anyway, not knowing that I can and will be a super bitch about it and I am keeping track of my hours and when they expire, the work will be forwarded to him, along with a strongly worded letter that says something to the effect of "Do it your own fucking self, you worthless undeserving untalented bastard."

No wonder students are so not into school. Because of jackasses like him. What a moron.

Plus I should be teaching the class. I sure as hell wouldn't assign busywork, and my lectures would actually be interesting. And I wouldn't show the idiotic movies he's showing. I'd show something worth talking about. Grr...