Students harmed by Flannery's actions

Students harmed by Flannery's actions

ATLANTA
November 6, 1998

I was enrolled in Professor Flannery's PHYS 2121 class in the Spring Quarter of 1997.[Editor's note: this was not the same quarter as the incident previously reported in the Technique]. Shortly after the first test, I realized that he had basically taught us the questions that would be on it during the review session the day before. Others did, too, and word got around to be sure to attend his next review session.

Again Professor Flannery gaves us "possible questions" on the day before the second test. Students who had neither attended a lecture nor done a single problem since the last test had all they needed to know to make an "A" on test two.

This pattern continued through the quarter. The regular lectures were dry and theoretical, and the class on the day prior to tests was packed with students eager to be spoon fed the test questions. The most appalling performance of this nature occured on the day of the final exam review session. I vividly recall him giving us exactly twenty kinds of problems that could be on the final. He would say, "You might see a problem like this," drawing the diagram on the board. Then he would solve it, without numbers, to get an express for the final answer in terms of the other variables. At the end of that class, I had twenty separate problems in my notes. Coincidentally, every one and not a problem more appeared on the final.

Despite my final grade of 198/200 in the class, I learned only how to memorize formulas. Or better yet, some students learned only how to program their calculators with potential problems. For proof of this fact, one need only look and the next quarter in e-mag, when I was called upon to apply those skills "learned" in Particle Dynamics. From the first day of e-mag, we were throwing vectors around. I barely knew what they were. After bombing the first test, I spent hours with the tutors, trying to learn the fundamentals I should have mastered in PHYS 2121.

What if my e-mag class had been taught by Professor Flannery as well? I surely would have had another easy "A" under my belt. Why not take him or someone with his teaching style for optics too? Then I would be able to get out of learning vectors altogether, right? If other professors in this school adopted his teaching methods, students would undoubtedly overload their class because "it's an easy 'A.'" Too bad our degrees would be worthless upon graduation.

For that reason, and for compromising Georgia Tech's reputation of providing only the finest education, this teaching style should not be allowed here.

Craig Forest
gt8500a@prism.gatech.edu

Copyright © 1998 by Gregory S. Scherrer, Editor and by the Student Publications Board

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