Literally the teachers job to explain everything.
I don't know about that. Certain things, like apostrophe use for example, often don't quite stick without some independent study.
Some explaining, but mostly the job is teach students how to think critically, seek resources, manage time at short medium and long terms, express yourself orally and written, build endurance for boring things, and most importantly to read.
I can explain riding a bike all day. But that’s not how someone learns to ride.
But the analogy is more that a student shows up to bike riding class, and hasn't learned to ride the bike beforehand, expecting the teacher to explain how it's done
If we expected students to learn the material before coming to class to listen to the teacher explain said material, then why do they even need to go to class?
Reflecting on the material afterwards is on the student of course
If you don't do the reading and come to class expecting everything to be laid out for you without any effort on your part, why even pay for a college education?
edit: It's also funny how you skipped over the "completely unprepared" part and went straight to the part about teachers.
What's really BS is the professors who don't teach jack shit during class and just expect students to do all the reading on their own time, then fill the actual class time with busy work. That was wayyy too common when I was in college.
The whole point of college is supposed to be to have highly qualified individuals giving you individualized instruction on advanced topics. That's why it costs literally tens of thousands of dollars. Yet more and more the professors are losers who couldn't hack it in their fields and the "lessons" are just there to fill time while you're expected to do most of the actual learning on your own.
I'd say about 10% of my industry knowledge when I graduated came from my classes, the other 90% was independent study or picking stuff up "on the job" at internships and jobs I worked outside of class. Basically I burned countless hours and tens of thousands of dollars just to get the piece of paper at the end. And talking to colleagues over the years, that's not at all an uncommon experience
If nothing is laid out for me and I just have to read a bunch of textbooks, what exactly am I paying tuition for?
All of my courses did the bulk of instructing and learning during class or lab time, and it was a fulfilling, educational, and enjoyable experience.
College is expensive, it's not unreasonable to expect the instructors to be willing to and capable of instructing.
I always viewed it as a give and take. You're expected to do the reading and understand the basics. The professor is there to give context and help you work out the harder stuff that doesn't leap off the page. If neither does their job, no learning gets done.
If a teacher can't inspire learning than they might be shit teachers. If the class is just read this boring book and regurgitate it back to me do you expect students to care?
This is so true. By college, far more learning and work takes place independently. A professor will teach 3-4 hours per week. Definitely not enough to “explain everything”.
OP is the worst kind of pedant
Me: please do the homework and we can have a discussion-based class
You: That makes you a bad teacher!!
Nice straw man!
I think the appropriateness of this criticism is highly dependent on subject. You can fit Maxwell’s equations on a sticky note, but most electrical engineering work will be learning how to apply those laws in a practical way. On the other hand, if you’re in an English Literature course and didn’t read the literature your class will be discussing, that’s on you.
This is what I hated most about school, needing to use my already limited free time to be more productive in class.
