Because professors are ALWAYS right...

There are two things in the academic world that I cannot stand.

One: Professors who are power-hungry and refuse to admit their mistakes.

Two: Getting a bad grade because power-hungry professors were not clear in explaining instructions.

No matter what university you attend, there will always be professors who spent too long getting an expensive degree only to end up back at their undergraduate alma mater teaching kids who just want to do better than them. Make no mistake, there is absolutely nothing wrong with teaching. "It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge," said Albert Einstein, and he is exactly right. It should be every professor's goal to encourage students to go beyond what they accomplished and reach their full potential. However, it never fails that there are a handful of professors who hate to think that any of their students might think in a different way than them, perhaps coming to a conclusion that they never even imagined themselves. Often, these professors have a deep-rooted aversion to giving out an "A" since no one can possibly attain the amount of knowledge that they have. And when you question their grading scale?

CAUTION: DANGER AHEAD!

Questioning one of these professors is like walking into the House of Chanel in Paris wearing your recently-found economical (and honestly, sensible) pair of Walmart shoes. You will get shut down, and they will make you feel stupid. Do not be deterred, though. If you feel that the instructions were obscure, let them know. Perhaps, ever so cautiously, suggest that they make it clearer in the future. It might not salvage your grade, but it may help out some poor kid in the future. The sad truth is that there is virtually nothing we can do about these professors. They are stubborn and they will not change because we said something. The only possibility is to get to know them. Find out their likes and dislikes and then shamelessly write papers that adopt a position that they can appreciate. Maybe this is brown-nosing or "kissing-up" but I would rather do that then receive a poor grade from a professor that will never see my point-of-view. I'm that desperate. Consider it sleuthing and then using your sleuthing skills to achieve some type of advantage.

Until the day when these professors no longer consider students incompetent or ill-suited for their field, we will continue to love our favorite professors and appreciate their teaching style and equality of grading. After all, some of our professors are people that we will remember for the rest of our lives. They will inspire us and encourage us to be better, to do better, and to achieve the unachievable. We love our professors… just not all of them equally.