First off, wasn't sure where to put this topic, so mods, feel free to relocate it if you deem it appropriate.
Okay, so as you may have guessed, I've got some thoughts about the majority of college professors. The short of it, they suck. I'll go into the long of it though. So, I guess I'll just cite my personal experiences. Most don't know how to teach. They may know their craft, but they have no idea how to pass on that knowledge. I'm at 2 years now, and there's only 1 who I can say is genuinely good and deserving of respect, I'll get to him later. Another was solid, but not spectacular. The rest, eck.
Physics professor. Had him for 211/212/213 and now for 214. He's so disjointed with his lectures. He'll spend 10 minutes on something just to then cross it off and mutter "Don't worry about that". Then there's also his favorite phrase "Read the book". I get it, reading the book is important, but if that's 90% of the class, then why are you needed? I'm not taking anything away from the other 10%, so seriously, why the fuck are you here? There's other things about this guy too. He likes to open the window. It's 20 degrees outside! If you're hot take off your damn sweater! Can't do that though. So now I've got feet going numb from the cold while my head is constantly being blasted by hot air as the heater comes on over and over again. The chorus of sniffling noses that results from this is a nice distraction as well. Also, when the wind blows the blinds make a huge racket. My one friend told me that his dad had this guy when he went through college. Apparently his dad gave him the highest of praises, saying that he was easily the best professor he had. I don't see it, and neither does my friend. Maybe 20 to 30 years ago he was, but he sure as hell isn't now.
Calculus professor. Had him for Calc 2 and now Calc 3. He seems to know Calculus, but frequently makes very basic math mistakes. Recent example is when he put 2 points on the y-axis but labeled them with x values of 1. Assumed he actually meant 1 and didn't bring it up, because that might make me look like some uppity asshole trying to belittle the teacher. It was actually supposed to be zero though and the whole problem was a mess because of it. Why didn't I speak up though? Well, he's kind of an asshole. On our most recent test he marked half the class completely wrong on a problem. He went over it and showed how to do it. I did it that exact way, as did many others, but he had marked it wrong. This wouldn't be too big of an issue, except he then went on avoiding trying to give people their points back. After 2 weeks I finally got him to angrily say "Fine, I'll give you the points back!" He said it as if I was only getting those points because I annoyed him and not because I actually did the problem right. I may be screwed in the class overall with this guy, but I was only trying to get credit for where it was due. Most of the other people in the class had forgotten about it and stopped asking him, I hadn't and he got pissed. Fuck this guy. And yes, I am 100% sure that the problem was right, even had it reviewed from multiple sources.
Circuit professor. This guy clearly got into teaching because it's easy. He's so disjointed and just mumbles on most of the time. I feel kind of bad saying that because he's actually at least a really nice person. It just seems that whenever he's teaching a new topic it's like he's teaching it to himself as well. I'm not personally affected by this too much because, well, I was an Electrician's Mate in the Navy, so these Electrical Engineering course are still review to me.
The "Dr." title. You're not a doctor. A doctor is someone who uses medicine to help the sick. I don't care that you have some specialized 7 year degree in your field, that doesn't make you a doctor. You could have come up with any title you wanted for your field. The Grand Poo-Bah, as my uncle joked once. Point is, it could have been anything, but you all choose to go with doctor. Probably because real doctors are in a profession that most people have a lot of respect for and you want that level of respect without actually being a doctor. It makes you look pathetic and insecure when you insist that people refer to you as "Dr. so-and-so". You're lucky you even get the professor title. Why is the teacher title no longer good enough when it comes to college education?
Nothing to do with anything. There are lots of examples for this, but thankfully I'm experiencing less since I'm taking less and less electives. I'll give you guys 1 example though. English professor made us all go to a soup kitchen to volunteer for a day. Justified it by having us write a report about our experience there afterwards. You know, it's not that I even had a bad time, but that has jack all to do with an English class.
The great one. Let no one say that I'm just a griper because I've encountered at least 1 professor who is truly great and I'm happy to be able to tell you about him now. How great is he though? Well, I had to late drop the class, but I've still been sitting in on it because I want to get the notes and be taught it from him before I have to retake it elsewhere in the future. Doing this sit in has caused me to miss lunch and would otherwise open up a 2 hour block of free time for me. So yeah, he's good enough for me to skip lunch to take his class when I'm no longer even getting credit for it. But why is he great? Well I'll tell you. The class is Differential Equations, easily the toughest course I've had to take to date. I've not heard a single person ever say it was easy. Re-taking it is also pretty common too apparently. This professor clearly knows his shit and is a master of his trade, that alone is not what makes him great though. He realizes that the students are not at his level, something that seems to be lost on most professors. As a result of realizing this, he's developed a teaching method that breaks everything down step by step. He communicates clearly and never gets angry or annoyed when a student interrupts him with a question or to correct a mistake he's made between steps. For problems that can get to be 3 pages long, proper continuity is important and anyone can make a copying mistake between that many steps. He's always smiles a little bit when one of us questions something and he genuinely seems to like it when we correct one of his copying errors because that means we are actually following along and understanding what he's teaching. Personality wise he's boring, but it's not his job to be entertaining. It's his job to teach and he does it very well with a very tough topic. So this guy gets my full respect.
So that sums up my current batch and some general examples. The biggest problem seems to be that all these pros in their field have no clue how to relate their knowledge to someone starting at square 1. They act like you should already be at their level and also that their class is the only one you should be concerned with. I'm grateful to have encountered at least 1 who is really good, but sadly he's the golden exception and not the standard.
So I'm done ranting now. I'd like to hear the thoughts from my brothers though and what their experiences may have been.