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Hebrew class :-(
General background: This is a first-time class offered jointly by AJL (the same folks who offer other adult classes, including conversational Hebrew and Melton) and a local synagogue. Classes are held at the synagogue, and it appears that most of the students are from there rather than the broader community. (Most of them seem to know each other.) The instructor is the head of the Hebrew program at University of Pittsburgh (part of why I was so excited). She chose the book, which is the same book I've used for some non-trivial self-study. I knew that a good chunk of the class would be refresher, but I took it because (1) having an instructor helps fill in gaps in understanding and (2) I want to help make a follow-on class possible. This class specified a pretty basic prerequisite: students are expected to already be able to read (not translate) Hebrew. In other words, you have to know your alef-beit. Duh.
Proximate background: Wednesday our teacher sent email saying she had to go out of town suddenly (that's pretty much never good), and so-and-so would be teaching class this week and next. Obviously there wasn't a lot of huddle time there between the two of them. The sub seemed pretty knowledgable last night; no qualms there.
20 people signed up for the class, though I've never seen more than 15 at once. We appear to have 3 or 4 people who did not meet the prerequisite at the beginning of the class, one of whom has improved since we started. I do not know why the teacher didn't send those students away, but I presume a sense of compassion and a desire to make this new venture work.
From the beginning, then, this class has been going more slowly than it appears the instructor had intended, because we're accommodating people with very rudimentary skills. And she's very helpful to them, answering their questions, when perhaps she ought to sometimes say "review chapter N before next week; we're moving on". Yes, I knew I'd be way out on one tail of the bell curve; the tail would have been shorter if minimum standards (what I thought was the "contract") were being kept, but it would still have been a tail. It's also pretty obvious that, independent of any actual Hebrew knowledge, I am by far the best student in the class. (I'm used to that. No, that doesn't make me happy; the best students usually get short shrift, and I paid the same tuition and hours as everyone else, dammit.)
One of these deficient students in particular is especially needy. She didn't meet the prerequisites, it's pretty obvious she doesn't do the homework, she whines "I don't know that" about things we covered last week (or even earlier in the same session), and she's pushy. Last night she openly criticized our teacher to the sub, complaining that she goes too quickly, skips stuff, didn't cover such-and-such (even though she did), and so on. A couple others support her in this, though they don't initiate. (Maybe they're just friends.) Last night, when the sub said to open to such-and-such page, this student said "no, we're at (earlier page)". When I turned there I said no, we had covered that; another student consulted her notes and confirmed. The whiner said "it doesn't hurt to review", and I said "it does if that means we don't cover something else". She insisted, the sub went along, and last night's class was a complete and utter waste of time for me. It seems highly likely that next week will be more of the same.
Here's an example, for those who know the domain: we are now 9 classroom hours into a course in Biblical Hebrew, with a very restricted vocabulary (all of which is spelled out in the book). You damn well ought to be able to translate "ish halach" or "hi zachrah"! This isn't rocket science! By this point in the class I expected to be through regular perfect verbs (in pa'al; the book focuses on one binyan) and into imperfect, with a decent dent in ancilary topics like word pairs and possessives.
To add insult, at the end of class the whiner looked at something in her notes and said "oh yeah, we did this chapter before". So not only doesn't she do the homework or pay attention in class, but she doesn't even know the stuff she wrote down. (Actually, I think she's probably not very smart.) And when she realized this, did she apologize for wasting people's time? No, of course not. It sure looks to me like she's taking this class recreationally, as a way to spend a night out with friends, rather than to really learn anything.
I'm talking a lot about this one student, but she wouldn't be able to drag us down if other people weren't also cooperating. She's part of the problem, not all of it.
So, what to do?
I could talk with the (original) instructor, but I certainly won't do that while she's in the middle of whatever sent her out of town. She won't be back until late December (we already had two no-class weeks that month). This is certainly a possibility. (In the meantime, skip next week's class.)
I could talk with the sub in an attempt to make next week's class useful. I don't want to drag her into a bigger conflict, though, since it's just one more class. I would also need to get her contact information from either the original teacher or (I hope) the AJL administrator.
I could talk with the person at AJL who administers classes. I am mindful of the fact that last year I complained to her about a teacher in the Melton program; while there were eventually enough complaints that that teacher was removed, it's still probably the case that I'm negatively flagged. And I ought not go to her before talking with the instructor, even if the instructor isn't available for several weeks. So this doesn't seem viable.
I could send email to the whiner. (An email address is the only contact info I have.) Even if I load up on diplomacy first, I'm kind of dubious about that having any positive effect. It might make me feel better, but it probably won't fix the problem even couched as something like "yeah, there's a lot to get through and it can be hard; here are some study techniques I've found helpful" or the like. I'm not into taking on a side tutoring gig.
I could initiate a more general discussion on the class email list. This, too, would require tact. It might tell me what the silent majority thinks about all this, or despite all tact it might look like I'm picking on people -- particularly if most of the synagogue people see this as "their" class rather than a community class, and who is this outsider trying to tell them what to do?
I could drop the class. I'm probably out the tuition, but, really, the time is the more valuable commodity. This is a gamble that the class won't be useful in the remaining 14 sessions (13 after next week's probable loss).
What I so far have not been able to do is find alternate local instruction. Real college courses meet during the work day only. I already asked the original instructor if she does private tutoring; she said no. (I can ask her if she knows anyone who does.) Online classes are a little intimidating; I think for this I would learn better with direct personal interaction.
So I'm disappointed that the course didn't turn out to be what was promised, frustrated that one or two bad students can derail an entire class, uncertain about corrective paths, and sad that there doesn't seem to be a better alternative. Sigh.
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