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silly humans.
Mar. 10th, 2009 12:12 amSo, 30-40 years ago, most geography departments were full of human/social geographers. But times change, technology changes, and do specialties. People who are primarily interested in studying social issues or urban issues are not likely to be majoring in geography- instead, we have criminology majors, sociology majors, urban studies majors, economic majors, et cetera. Today, the UMD geography department is split pretty evenly between environmental geographers and the technology side: remote sensing/gis. There are all of two lecturers for the human geography classes, and I have both of them this semester. They are each their own special brand of exasperating. Both of them are in their late sixties, as well, so you get to add querulousness into the mix.
A. is flat-out crazy. Listening to him is somewhat eerily like imagining my mom trying to convince a room full of 250 teenagers that she knows more than they do. His slides are ... actual slide decks. He brings in a carousel every class. What comes out of his mouth, however, is the most narrowminded set of half-truths, hare-brained conspiracy theories, and bigoted blunders that I've heard in a long time. It's almost as if he believes everything he read on the internets^H^H^Hon fox news^H^H^H... whatever passed for yellow journalism in the 50s. I get a searing headache every time I try to force myself to listen.
B. is a smart, impatient, eastern european woman. I actually like her, except when trying to communicate with her. It just doesn't work. I tried to discuss what I was going to research with her, she misunderstood, so I spent most of my homework trying to correct that particular misunderstanding, with the result that she decided I hadn't understood the assignment. So I got a form letter informing me I got a zero.
This did not go over well.
In reality, apparently what it means is that if I re-work it and re-submit, she'll re-grade it. But I got to stew for nearly a day until class got out (at 5pm) to talk to her about it. And she's not even going to look at it until the end of the week.
Humans drive me crazy. Why on earth would I want to study them?
A. is flat-out crazy. Listening to him is somewhat eerily like imagining my mom trying to convince a room full of 250 teenagers that she knows more than they do. His slides are ... actual slide decks. He brings in a carousel every class. What comes out of his mouth, however, is the most narrowminded set of half-truths, hare-brained conspiracy theories, and bigoted blunders that I've heard in a long time. It's almost as if he believes everything he read on the internets^H^H^Hon fox news^H^H^H... whatever passed for yellow journalism in the 50s. I get a searing headache every time I try to force myself to listen.
B. is a smart, impatient, eastern european woman. I actually like her, except when trying to communicate with her. It just doesn't work. I tried to discuss what I was going to research with her, she misunderstood, so I spent most of my homework trying to correct that particular misunderstanding, with the result that she decided I hadn't understood the assignment. So I got a form letter informing me I got a zero.
This did not go over well.
In reality, apparently what it means is that if I re-work it and re-submit, she'll re-grade it. But I got to stew for nearly a day until class got out (at 5pm) to talk to her about it. And she's not even going to look at it until the end of the week.
Humans drive me crazy. Why on earth would I want to study them?
