On 31 May 2007, an anonymous professor published “Enough Regret to Go Around” at “Rate Your Students” in which she/he responded to a “a less-than-stellar review of my teaching” which a student had published at “RateMyProfessors.com.” Although the student’s review was published anonymously, the instructor recognized the student’s writing style.

Professor Anonymous wrote to the student, “You are dismayed that I actually graded you in a literature class based on the quality of your writing style” which, in part was designated as writing-intensive “which means the majority of your grade must come from your writing.”

This particular student complaint—that the quality of her writing should not be relevant in a literature class—is the type of complaint that should not result in a change in course policy. While we need to listen to our students, we do not need to always accommodate their desires.

One of the complaints that I sometimes get in my history classes is that they are too much like English classes. By this, the student means that we spend too much time doing academic research in the library and using Schoolcraft College’s on-line databases. For example, I sometimes require students to develop an annotated bibliography on an individual who lived during the period we are studying. Half of the articles in the bibliography need to be found in peer-reviewed journals.

These students are like one who, just before she dropped the course, informed me that “you don’t know how to teach history properly.” The problem for her was that I was not going to spend the semester lecturing and then having her regurgitate my lectures and the textbook on two midterms and a final exam. As a significant part of the course, I was going to make her work both individually and as part of a team to research, write, and report about historical issues.

I put a great deal of emphasis on doing good quality research not because I have a joint appointment in both history and English but because history is built on credible research. In fact, although I have a degree in American Studies granted by the English department at Michigan State University, two thirds of my graduate coursework focused on history.

Furthermore, one of the objectives in all of our history courses is:

While focusing on the historical period covered by the course, use research and writing to develop an awareness of history as a means of reflecting and evaluating the human experience, both in the past and in contemporary times.

Although students in all of our courses will have to do some research and writing, Schoolcraft College is large enough that students do have choices when it comes to selecting professors. My colleagues and I approach the research/writing component of the class in a number of ways. Students can choose the instructor whose teaching style and requirements more closely fit their desires.

For example, a student I had last semester told me how much more she enjoyed my class than a history class she took with a well respected colleague. She then assured me that my colleague was a wonderful instructor; that she was not implying anything bad about him. However, she liked the group work and type of research she was able to do in my section.

I am not going to start lecturing because some students prefer that. And I am not going to eliminate the “English” elements from history. Fortunately, the student who preferred my class and the student who thought I did not know how to teach history correctly can both have a good academic experience.

–Steven L. Berg, PhD