I don't think my ratings would be good. Mainly because my class is hard.

Last night at conferences, a kid said he stopped doing work becauseit was boring sometimes.

I looked at his dad and smiled and said, "Imagine if you said to your boss, 'I'm sorry. I'm not going to do any of that work anymore. It's boring.'"

At least dad understood.

Yeah, Rick, I wouldn't write that about my teacher unless I wanted to boink him.

I think that the boink-wanting is unlikely, because I am generally the recipient of chaste crushes, but I know faculty who get a lot of that. When my friend (Dr. A.) and I (Dr. B) started as new professors, he had a bad-boy image and he would get steamy sexual comments from female students on his student evaluations. When I got personal comments they were never overtly sexual, and they usually had a gloomy fatalism about them. The contrast bothered me at the time.

For instance:

What did you like best about this course?

Dr. A. was SO HOT! Gimme some of that!

Dr. B. was really smart, and he made me laugh every day. My roommate is pretty sure that he's married. I guess it doesn't matter if he's married. It's never going to matter. How could it?

Or:

What could the instructor do to improve the class?

For Dr. A.: He could invite me to spend a weekend in the Bahamas with him after the class is over! Woo Yeah!

For Dr. B.: He could dump that pretentious blonde girl I've seen him with. Why would he like her? I hate that girl. Men are stupid.

It was a hard lesson to learn. Some men inspire lust. Others, just a transient sense of ennui.

It is *cold* here right now. Hmph.

My Firefox weather thingy says it's climbed up to 30 degrees. Which is less than balmy.

Heh. This is my friend J to a t: (Name) is such a cutie! I like his teaching style and he's such a cheerful, if extremely disorganized guy!

Rick, this may be no consolation, but I've got a horrible case of the giggles thanks to Some men inspire lust. Others, just a transient sense of ennui.

Oh My God, my boss at the theatre is on there!

And this is what they said

Do not piss this man off. He does not change opinions of people for anything, no matter how hard you work. He is a directing genius, but if he doesn't think you're worth it, he won't share an iota of his knowledge. Favortism is the name of his game.

Is that accurate, Sophia?

But Rick, lust is a dime a dozen.

Transient ennui, on the other hand, is the sort of thing that's remembered for a lifetime.

I'm so pleased that my ABSOLUTE MOST FAVORITIST PROF EVAH!!!1! is beloved by most all.

(name) is absolutely great. She is very knowledgeable in her field and an absolute sweetheart. She can also be very understanding and helpful. If you are interested in Central or Eastern Europe, Russia, or folklore you couldn't do better.

It's funny, because they acknowledge that she makes you work hard, but everyone still adores her, anyhow.

And my cutiehead absentminded prof (the one who beta read the X-Files episode with the AI and Esther) got:

This guy is a *god* in his field. (Philosophy of Mind/Cog Science/Computer Science) He has a particular cadence that can make his lectures difficult to listen to, and don't ask him a question if you're in a hurry.

Middling ratings, but there are only three, and one of them was

Loopydoopy

I looked up my dad. I didn't think he'd be on there since he only teaches 1 class a semseter, but there he was! He ends up teaching two different econmics classes, depending on what the University needs. Some of the comments:

As long as you come to class and pay attention to his methods you will do fine on the tests. He uses very simple models to explain things and the math is not too heavy at all. He likes to keep that stuff simple so that you can grasp the main concepts of international trade. He gets an A+ in my books.

Good professor and makes things look really easier. Only one thing, watch out for his tests. Some of them are fairly twisted! Take him, but pratice the practical part A LOT

Makes advanced economic theory so easy to understand.

I'm going to share the comments with him. I know at one point a former student sent him a letter saying that Dad made economics so interesting he swtiched majors.

Well, I wouldn't call him a directing genius....

I don't think it is favoritism per se, but you have one chance and one chance only to get on his good side and otherwise he really doesn't want to work with you at all.