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Melton development
When we arrived we were told our two classes were being swapped tonight. Our regular instructor for the second one (this is the one I like so much) is out of town, which we knew in advance; it was easier for the substitute to teach in the first hour, so they switched. I had considered skipping the first class tonight and just coming for the second, so I'm glad I didn't.
After his class the administrator came in, asked us to stick around (there is a break between sessions), and closed the door. They reviewed all the evaluations and there was quite a range of feedback on the first class, but clearly there were some problems. She and the "dean" (I don't know his real title, but the head academic guy) had spoken with her and were ready to work with her, but she decided to withdraw instead. This was not the first conversation they'd had on this topic; apparently there had been several complaints thus far this year. (So it wasn't just me, not by a longshot.) It's a little sad that she chose to leave rather than try to fix it, but that's her decision. And I'm not at all sad about her replacement: the instructor I like will be teaching both of our sessions starting next week. (For tonight we had a sub, a different one than for the first hour. Which makes swapping the two tonight even more important -- otherwise they'd have had to explain the sub.)
My opinion of the administrator has gone up a lot; I didn't feel good about our interactions when I complained earlier in the year, but now it seems clear that she was listening and that they take feedback seriously in the aggregate. She said this has only happened a few times in the 13 years they've been running the program. She said they also usually don't have laypeople teach in this program. I hope this hasn't made it hard for laypeople in general; I think the problem here was specific, not general to the category.
After this explanation (in which the administrator also said everyone had had something positive to say too), one of my classmates threw a tantrum way out of proportion to what we'd just heard. He said what we had done was awful, getting this person fired (note: she wasn't fired), and we should be ashamed of ourselves for our deliberately-hurtful behavior (um, no) and he's disgusted and he's done with Melton now. He started to storm out, but caught a second wind on his way to the door and ranted some more. I pointed out (politely) that he was making assumptions about others that he couldn't support, and he ignored me and ranted some more, this time about how she was doing us a favor and she was just fine as a discussion facilitator and the point of the class is for us to learn from each other, not her. (Um, where to begin...) Another classmate disagreed with this assessment, and a third pointed out that opinions had been solicited and people responded. He wasn't interested in hearing any opinions but his own (he, and he alone, is entitled to opinions), and soon he finally left. (The administrator could have maybe handled that better, but I think she was as shocked as the rest of us.)
After he left we closed the door again, and the administrator basically told us what we already knew, that his assumptions about what people had said in the evaluations weren't correct and that no, we hadn't done anything wrong and she hadn't seen any hurtful comments.
The man comes to the class with his wife -- who did not leave with him -- and several people offered her a ride home if she wanted to stay. She stayed for the administrator's further explanation and then left without saying anything. I have no idea if she's coming back.
Wow.
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