Collage class

[Guest guest]

Hello,

First, I would like to say sorry for being missing these past few days. The

workload for school is heavy and I have been busy. I am reading as many

e-mails as I can but have very little time to respond.

I need the wisdom of the wonderful people here once again. Something

happened in a class today and I am not sure which of my reactions are fleas

and which are sound. Here is the story.

My sociology professor made it clear on the first day of class that side

conversations would not be tolerated and would " effect the grade of everyone

in the class " . I assumed he meant the obvious that if he had to stop class

to deal with it we would be missing out a little. Today three girls were

having a conversation during class. He stopped the class, told them to

teach the rest, and we will have an exam on Tuesday on the information he

did not cover unless the girls agree to withdraw from the class. He walked

out. The girls involved claimed to just be asking for clarification on

notes and would go talk to him. When they left a student in front of them

said they were talking for 30 minutes. Most students left but 7 of us

stayed to see if he came back. He did not. We went to his office to see if

there is anything we can do as we are all very concerned with our grades.

He claimed to be sorry but said this is how it has to be. Not only do we

have to worry about the exam but we are missing vital pieces of information

about research methods that we will need throughout the course. I am having

the classes paid for through a government program that requires good grades

and attendance. I brought this up to him that this could effect my funding

and his reaction was an oh well type reaction.

I have 4 options on how to handle this.

1) Research the remainder of the information on my own and hopefully learn

enough to pass the exam. This would save my grade for now but I am left

knowing that he will continue to handle other's misbehavior by punishing all

the class which could still effect my grades later on.

2) Confront him directly either through e-mail or in person. He has been

very adamant that he will not change his mind and I fear this will cause him

to punish me or the class further.

3) Go to the school administration with the complaint. He has been a

professor their for a very long time and is a master in his field. He has

done things like this many times before so I fear that they support or at

least tolerate this behavior.

4) Withdraw from the class and take it later with a different professor.

This is dependent that I can later fit the class into my schedule with the

other professor and that the school will permit it at this time.

I have a very hard time letting go of thing that I strongly feel are

unethical and this fits the bill. I work very hard and don't feel that I

should be punished with loss of grades for other's behavior. I am trying to

decide on the best course of action. I just can't seem to figure out what

feelings are fleas and what might be practical.