fight back to school

On Friday I dropped one of my classes. It was right before the midterm, and the TA seemed perplexed by that - most people take the midterm and then drop if they do badly. But I was less concerned with my grade than with the time the class was consuming. I was turning in 20 pages of homework weekly and studying extra to make up for confused presentation in lecture. It wasn't even thoughtful homework, it was usually 6 versions of almost the same number-crunching problem. I wanted the credits so I could be done taking classes sooner (I plan to finish the credit requirements next year), but the trade-off with research time was too steep. Being done with classes doesn't help me if I haven't got any research done. I feel like dropping this class has freed up at least 10 or 15 hours per week, and just yesterday I made some science progress. Problem solved!

I feel a little bad that I didn't sit the TA down and explain why I was dropping. I really felt like the class was being run into the ground, and that was what made me quit. I was getting a good grade in the class, participated in lectures, studied for the midterm I didn't even take, and I think those things would have made my opinion carry a little more weight. The thing is, when midterm evaluations came back pretty negative, this TA bitched out the class at the next lecture, in the "if you don't like how I teach you should drop" style. There's some truth to that, but if everyone in the class thinks you teach badly, there's probably something to it and you shouldn't write them off as whiners who should drop the class. That's bad form. So I felt like I could possibly have changed the class for the better (as sort of a public service) by explaining why I was quitting, but I didn't want to get into it with somebody who takes criticism so badly.

I'm looking forward to bjj today. I should learn Perl so I can write a script that includes that line in everything I post on a Tuesday or Saturday. A. might even be back today. I hope she had fun in France.