My Best and Worst Educational Experiences

Throughout my schooling, I can remember my best educational experience coming my senior year of high school in Mr. Hilgartner's Ecology glass. Naturally, your last year in high school is always the most fun, but I didn't expect to take such a great class at the same time. In my school, Mr. Hilgartner was what we would call the "hippie" teacher. He's an older male with gray hair and a gray beard. The majority of the student body liked him, but I'd never really thought of taking one of his classes until the point when it really didn't matter what classes I took. So, I figured I might as well give it a shot. What I loved about his class was his ability to engage everyone in what we were doing. Whether he was drawing the life cycle on the board, or taking us outside to go bird watching; Mr. Hilgartner knew how to get information to stick in your head. To this day, I still remember the mating call of the Goldfinch. What was greatest about his class was he also knew how to have fun. On days when we didn't have work to do like before winter and spring break, he would play the banjo for the whole class. It was an all around rewarding experience. I'll never forget my days in Mr. Hilgartner's ecology class.

Little did I know that only a year later, I would have the worst educational experience of my life. My freshman year of college, I enrolled in an economics class taught by Professor Dasgupta. I regretted the decision after the first day of class. Professor Dasgupta has been teaching ECON for a long time, and it showed. She seemed as if the whole teaching process was very routine for her. She always spoke extremely fast and wrote quickly on the board at the same time. Her heavy Indian accent made it that much harder to pick up what she was saying. Not only could I not understand her, but she rarely went back to cover information that wasn't understood. I dreaded waking up for that class for an entire semester largely due to the monotone voice she spoke in that put me to sleep almost every class. It's safe to say that I didn't get the highest mark for the semester, but one thing's for sure; I won't be taking one of her classes ever again.