> > My boyfriend Mike majored in philosophy [his current career has nothing to do with his major, of course :)], so I think I'll ask for input tomorrow. He has a bookcase full of philosophy books, including Aristotle...I'll look through them when I get a chance.
>

> We were doing presentations on what we had been reading for class - different Greek literature pieces from our anthology. I had done the work and prepared a really great presentation. It had to do with Aristotle and catharsis.
>
> He sat in the back of the class, listening and asking the occasional question. The guy presenting before me didn't know how to answer his last question. The teacher called me to present and, because our presentations were all related, asked me the same thing - after I passed around the handouts I had made but before I had a chance to say anything.
>
> I didn't know the answer. At all. To make a long story short, he asked me in several different ways and I still didn't know. He made me sit down without giving my presentation or showing all of the work I had done.
>
> I cried. It was very cathartic.
>
> Gahalia

(Random thought)

I understand that this was probably more an isolated incident involving you, Gahalia. Still, I wonder what Aristotle would have said about your instructor's use of intimidation as a student teaching tool? :-(

The past is past; the injustice was done, and nothing can change it. But I can't help recalling other instances where I saw a Teacher abuse his/her authority to "make a point" and all the students were either too cowed -- or too inexperienced -- to object.

I know of one rather sore incident in University where a particularly harsh instructor failed a bunch of his students, who then had to retake the same course that summer in order to graduate. They studied their brains out, and got A+'s on the exams and coursework. Imagine their shock when they found he'd assigned everyone D-'s on their transcripts. His reasoning was "You've already failed the course; I can't give you better than D." So not only were the hard-working students penalized and brought down to the same level as if they had slacked all summer, their Grade Point Averages were pummelled twice -- by both an F and a D. If only they had taken it up with the students' academic Ombudsman, I'm relatively certain that the arbiter would have ruled in their favour.

Wolf "fortunately most of my instructors knew how to act like adults, so I never had to vent any spleen" spirit