>When I was at Columbia a professor I had (Andrew Chiappe, now dead, thank
>god) refused to grade a paper I wrote for him on "The Merchant of Venice"
>because he thought I'd lifted some or much of it from someplace - the
>evidence being the way I used one particular word. I hadn't, and he had no
>actual evidence, just his intuition.  Of course I was angry (and flattered,
>a little) and protested to him, but to no avail. He was a poor teacher -
>though a very thorough methodologist - and didn't know me from a hole in
>the wall. I didn't fail his course, but hated him ever since - now more
>than 30 years ago - and felt his error proved his inferiority.

That's an interesting story.  We always hear about teachers whose
mentoring inspire people toward greatness.  How about complete losers who
do the same thing?

I had to laugh at your continued hatred of this person.  I had a similar
experience while in my senior year of film production (1983), though I'll
withold the name :), with a teacher who mocked me in a set design course
because he thought I was trying to weasel out of doing work. In fact, I
thought I had developed a more efficient system for doing something,
using more than one student.  His words were: "Honey, if you can't do
that job by yourself, you might as well come to class wearing high
heels!"  Yes, this was back before I knew what sexual descrimination was
. . .  Anyway, he gave me a D- in the course!  It was probably warranted
in a way, since I couldn't stand to be around him and our grade was based
in part on the total hours we spent working in the shop with him.  He
probably thought he was discouraging me from a career in this field.

Needless to say, I hated this guy (he was jerk enough to even say in
class one day, "you hate me, don't you?").  However, I can't tell you the
pride I felt when I returned to the school a few years later to do my MA
and was asked by the Dean to teach an intro course in media writing --
quite an honor at the time, since I was the only grad student asked to
teach.  I would sit at my desk and smile at him smugly whenever he walked
by.

This guy was a REAL loser, but he instilled in me a great resolve to
stand up for myself and to not get pushed around in the future.  He, as
much as the few mentors I met along the way, really helped me develop
character.

Maureen Furniss

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