Monday, October 21, 2013

The Sanctimonious Instructor

Recently at church someone asked me how my ordeal with New Mexico State University was going and several others mentioned that they had read my editorials in the newspaper even though it has been quite some time since I had written one.  Well that rejuvenated me in my quest to be heard!

Let me share with you how Jamie Baker, instructor for the graduate course Exploration of Education and Assistant Director of Secondary Education, treated me in class.  During one class, by chance, she and I were the only two members of a group.  The facilitators for this class period had the four assigned groups go outside where they had laid four blankets out on the grass.  Jamie Baker promptly plopped down on the corner of our blanket, facing out so that wherever I chose to sit on the blanket her back would be to me.
All of the other three groups sat on their blankets facing each other.  When one of the class facilitators brought our question sheet, Jamie Baker grabbed it and proceeded to read and answer the questions out loud while writing her answers down.  She only asked for my input on the last question and even then she did not turn to look at me.

Her dislike of me was common knowledge.  One of my colleagues whom I had worked with on a group class presentation teased me on our way outside about being alone in a group with Jamie Baker.  Then she got serious and asked me if I was going to be okay and I told her yes that it would be okay.

By the end of the semester I was emotionally drained; it had been a very degrading experience.  Jamie Baker did her best to make me feel unaccepted in the class environment, an outcast, and totally belittled me through the grading process.