Snowflake Mail.

To: Horrible
Fm: Zippy Z-----

Dear Mr Horrible,

You were horrible last year as instructor. My college experience was ruined because I took your course, Hamster Studies II, and still playing catch up. Couldn"t even approach you because of your patronizing attitude. I know you might not read evaluations but do consider this as an evaluation. Then you made an impossible final and gave ow grade on the mean. How could you?????

[+]

Mr Z-----,

If I could actually reply to you then I would thank you for using your real name. You might be surprised by how many (allegedly elite small university)'s students are anonymous cowards. While we are on the subject of names, the proper term for addressing me in an academic setting is Dr.

Still on the subject of names, I can't seem to find yours in my class list so I take back any implication that you might not be a cowardly fool unwilling to accept the consequences of your own failure.

If you couldn't approach me, you might have approached the TAs who were available morning till evening, five days a week. In any case, Hamster Studies II is not Homological Algebra and just about anyone who puts in the recommended six hours a week outside of class will do well. In fact, millions of students all over the world interested in further studies in sciences and engineering do exactly that.

You are wrong about evaluations, I do read them and in fact am required to read all evaluations for my department and they are potentially an important part for each hiring case that I handle.



Of course, "you were horrible" isn't a usefuly comment in any way so will be ignored as perhaps all such comments and evaluations should.

Teaching you seems to have been a waste of time, otherwise you would realize that a single counterexample is sufficient to disprove an assertion. A million examples don't prove an assertion, one counterexample disproves it. I spent a lot of time patiently explaining this to you just as I was taught by my profs in Northern Canuckistan. Did you ever come to class? As there were students who got close to perfect on the final it is not true that the final was impossible.

I assume by 'ow grade on the mean' that a low grade was given to people who got an average aggregate score, though in your case, whoever you are, ow grade seems to work just as well.

I think relative grading is idiotic, we never used it in Northern Canuckistan. But as it is the policy of the university here in Almost Warzonia, I follow it and don't tamper with the grades except to bump up a few people who are near grade boundaries.

Regards,
Dr Horrible
Chair, Hamster Studies