Needs A Lecture On Lecturing

(I’ve recently gone back to college to do a business course and they’ve hired a lecturer that used to be a professor at a well-off university. He often gives us vague information and expects us to do the entire class as self-study. A lot of the students are doing the course without any experience or knowledge on the subject and frequently ask him for help.)

Lecturer: “I don’t know why you’re having so many problems; just read [text book #1] and [websites]. It’s not that hard.”

Student#1: “Okay, but that’s a pretty big textbook, and I don’t know what information would be relevant to the tests. I mean, there are several case studies in here; do you expect us to memorize all of them?”

Lecturer: *scoffs* “If you were in [University] you would memorize all of this.”

Student#2: “We’re not in [University]!”

Lecturer: “That’s why you read the texts! Follow that power point I gave you.”

Student #1: “You mean the one that just has keywords listed on each slide with no context, or the one that’s just web links?”

Student #3: “We’re obviously not learning anything like this. Can’t you just run through some stuff with us?”

Lecturer: “I’m used to [University] students, smarter students, ones who go off and do learning independently. Why can’t you do that?”

Student #2: “You are our lecturer; what is the point of you even being here if you won’t lecture?”

(It didn’t get much better after that, and eventually the class complained so much that we got a new teacher who was actually willing to work with us instead of watching us work.)