“It was once the case that the tough graders mapped almost perfectly on to the great teachers. Those were the ones you wanted - if you could get them: their classes were always filled to capacity with us masochistic eager-beavers.”
- Agree. I had a prof. ask me if I'd care to reconsider taking two of her courses one semester because she was known for being tough. She WAS tough. But she was also fair (although she really didn't like my Keynes paper - ouch. I still disagree with my grade on that one). My D has a tough old bird whom she absolutely adores but it's a super hard class for the subject matter. Said she's never had to work so hard for a lower grade in her life. I'd say both my D and I are masochistic eager-beavers, always willing to test the common wisdom floating through campus and usually regretting our fearless jump into the adventure by sometime around mid-terms. Fortunately, the perspective of time in my case has helped to sharpen the rough edges that gouged my pride . . .