Evaluations

At the end of every semester college students are given forms to fill out to evaluate and rate the instructor and the course. If you ever had to do this you know it is a pain and you are so ready to be done with school that you just scribble something down figuring the instructor isn't going to read it anyway. Well you were wrong. Instructors do read the evaluations. And laugh at them. Then read them to their spouses. And they laugh some more. Jonathan got a significantly higher average score this semester so at least he is improving. Here are some notable things students actually wrote which I thought you'd enjoy.

This one was probably the nicest-

What is your overall rating of this instructor?
5 (on a scale of 1 to 5; 5 being excellent)

What is your overall rating of this course?
5

What was your overall opinion about the strength and weakness of the course?

I really enjoyed the class- I thought that the beginning in the Pre-Socratics made a lot of sense and helped to sort of ground the course. It helped to understand, at least to some degree, the relatively humble beginnings of Greek Philosophy and the heights to which it rose. I wish though we could have spent more time on Aristotle.

What was your overall opinion about the strength and weakness of the instructor?

I really appreciated Mr. Nelson's true desire to impart his knowledge of philosophy to us- his enthusiasm for the subject matter came across despite (or perhaps because of) his wry sense of humor. He was also willing to take questions/comments/arguments in the middle of a lecture and really encouraged participation by asking lots of pertinent questions.

Written comments are very important for improving a course. Please share any additional written comments here:

The time used to cover Plato was well spent- I really enjoyed the material. The breadth of information that had to be covered was staggering and Mr. Nelson did a great job covering it.

I would say this person was sucking up but you can't really suck up if you are anonymous.

This one would have made me cry if it was about me. It's also pretty funny-

What is your overall rating of this instructor?
1
What is your overall rating of this course?
1
What was your overall opinion about the strength and weakness of the course?

The course had great potential, but as we kept on going it kept getting more unorganized.

What was your overall opinion about the strength and weakness of the instructor?

- extremely boring
- shows no enthusiasm to teach
- paces back and forth and teaches nothing
- made me hate philosophy

Wow! Ouch. Could you get any meaner?

This comment sounds like Jonathan all right-

What was your overall opinion about the strength and weakness of the instructor?

Mr. Nelson is crazy. He lives in his own world, but he is very smart, and knows the material very well.

That cutting evaluation got us thinking. What if college professors got to evaluate their students in the same manner? It'd probably be something like-

What is your overall opinion of this students' performance in the course?

Between coming late to class, sleeping through the lecture, and constantly whining about the amount of coursework, this student was lucky to get a C-.

What is your overall opinion of the student?

Considering the complete lack of motivation, irresponsibility, and utter laziness portrayed by this student, how he ever got into college is beyond me.

Well that's the best I could come up with. I'll have to consult Jonathan's expertise on this one.