i went to talk to my advisor about independent studies because there aren’t a terrible number of classes i’m interested in taking. one class i would like to take, web databases, is being taught by a particularly heinous instructor (and i don’t mean good heinous) who i suffered under last semester. in not so many words, i tried to clearly explain my aversion to taking web databases for that reason. it seems, though, this chunk of information fused in my advisor’s head with one of several things i had mentioned earlier in explaining why i have a class shortage in the first place: namely that i skipped some of the introductory graduate courses because they were too basic. this snippet of a remark must have hit a particularly exposed nerve, because it even overwhelmed my comment that i took all these post-introductory graduate classes to fulfill my undergraduate minor in information systems.

so those two pieces of information fuse and mix with what seems to be a prevailing attitude at sils*—basically the assumption that an individual who’s credentials appear technically advanced, diverse, and competent cannot at the same time have one iota of intellectual capacity or aptitude.

so what was the comment that sparked this diatribe?

“I’m just a little worried that by skipping these introductory courses, you missed out on some of the fundamental concepts that would have made database systems II more meaningful.”

bite the tongue, bite it, bite it!

my mother would be proud to hear, that in polite conversation, I blatheringly tried to emphasize that, no, the instructor really is bad, and that i had read the introductory tome front to back … and eventually the topic of conversation dissolves with the comment:

“so maybe you’ll just have to suck it up and take the class.”

(ha ha, laugh laugh)

truth be told, this advisor seems like a wonderful person, and I’m certain meant the comments above intending no offense whatsoever. regardless of intending no offense, this professor/advisor hit a large red hot button of mine: that you don’t know anything about me, that i come somewhat humbly to you seeking counsel, and you question whether i know anything at all, in such a way that implies I know nothing about a field I know more about than anything else. i would hate to be you reading this.

low brow bile

as this post is not presently polite conversation, i must admit i’m pretty pissed off. on one hand, every class costs me, out of my own pocket, over $2000. it seems that when my parents were footing the bill, a bum class or a bum teacher could be endured. but now you’re telling me i have to pay two grand to sit in a class and watch a bumbling fool manage to not teach a meaningful thing about a subject in which i have advanced technical experience, for an hour and fifteen minutes twice a week for sixteen weeks? did i also mention the obligatory sils torture of poorly structured group projects that this instructor will use to inevitably force us to do something majorly painful and useless with oracle? tell me again to “suck it up.”

if only you were so tragically misunderstood

on the other hand this advisor set a trap classic in those rarified academic circles. no one can genuinely refute that they don’t possess some basic fundamental knowledge about a field, certainly not on the spot. how am I supposed to excel in this environment? why do i have to waste my time explaining to other people (who get off thinking they’re better than me) that I know what I know—and that I don’t need you telling me what I don’t know, because I already know what I don’t know.

*the school of information and library science