To the Editor:
When I hear people discuss what an excellent English program Fairfield University has, I laugh quietly to myself. Granted, Fairfield is a fine academic school and the students who attend the school are intelligent human beings. One of the reasons I chose Fairfield was because of the size relative to the faculty. Fairfield is small enough so it has no need to have teacher assistants instructing a class by themselves. In every class I will take in the future, I would like to expect to get a teacher who not only challenges us, but also cares about their students and want to see them develop their minds. This was clearly not the case last semester in my English class.
Keep in mind that I love having the occasional cancelled class just as much as the next student and probably even more. However, too much of a good thing is never healthy. At one point during the semester, we did not have a class for two weeks. In addition normally a teacher will inform the students of the cancellation in advance. Doing so helps the students plan their schedules accordingly. However, an unannounced cancellation can be terribly inconvenient, as was the case on the last day of classes before Thanksgiving vacation.
A week earlier, I had specifically asked our teacher if we would have class on the following Tuesday. The teacher said yes we would, saying that we could not afford to miss any more classes. Lo and behold, when I showed up to the classroom for the class at 3:30, there was a note on the door saying class had been cancelled. If we were told in advance, then I could have left for home a solid hour earlier and quite possibly missed the traffic jam on I-95. The lack of class time left disorder and confusion between the students and the teacher. It was obvious the teacher did not finish the required curriculum for the semester. Even on the rare occasion we did have class, we certainly did not make the most of our class time. The teacher was not always prepared, at one point spending 20 minutes of class time searching through her folders to find our recently graded papers. Class was often let out early because the teacher obviously wanted to go home just as much as the students. In essence, the class was a waste of the students’ time, me included, and our parents’ money.
The inefficiency of the class time made it hard for me and the rest of the students to take our teacher seriously. I looked forward to the day when we were given the chance to evaluate her teaching skills. Unfortunately, that day never came in our English class. It was ironic that the teacher who by far needed the most critiquing out of my other teachers for the semester was the one teacher who did not give us an evaluation. If somebody would like to inform me why this occurred, please let me know as soon as possible.
This is not the only case where the English teacher decided to play hooky. Sophomores at this school have complained about the same teacher. Another sophomore had another English teacher, but who also pulled the same disappearing act without informing the students. Finally, I have yet to find a fellow freshman who thinks they have an English teacher who makes them a better writer.
Despite all this, I think overall Fairfield University is a superb school academically. That is a big reason why I chose this school-because I knew I would receive a top quality education. However, something must be done to the English department. The school needs to thoroughly examine these teachers and root out the bad apples.
Sincerely,
Kurt Heinold ’05
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