Sunday, January 31, 2010

The Strange World of Student Evaluations

"We are now the children of Beckett more than the children of Proust." --Charles Baxter

Just received last semester's student evaluations. I received what I expected. After a whole semester with a class, it would be hard for an evaluation to catch me off guard. However in one of my writing classes, under "would you recommend this teacher to someone else," the student marked N/A. Odd, huh? How would it not be applicable? Even if you were moving out of the country, the question is really asking whether or not the professor would be good for other people, not just you. And that's something worth answering. It doesn't bother me, especially since I received no low marks from that class. But I just found it rather strange, like Lady Gaga's wardrobe...or a Samuel Beckett play.