I was pretty excited to be attending a course in contaminant chemistry this week — I’ve been planning it for months…
And then — I got there. I don’t claim to be an expert in chemistry, just a chem. major. The presenter had it ALL wrong, I don’t care if she was a post-doc from the U of MN biochem department – the misinformation and the ineptitude were awe-inspiring.
Maybe it’s just because I am a relatively recent grad with a chem major, but there were points in the presentation that pained me to watch, they were so inaccurate or oblivious.
Comment: “Oxidation potential is measured in, erm, umm, volts — I think….”
Another comment: “Hrm… this slide doesn’t seem right.” [It was.] “The stereo-chemistry would indicate a lower boiling point for this compound.” [No... It did not.] “I’ll mention this slide to the school and have them fix it.” [Go ahead sweetie, you are WAY off the mark and it will support my complaint].
More comments: “I’m not sure what this slide is supposed to convey…. Oh! They are trying to tell you {such and such}.” [Umm... No. Are you REALLY a post doc in biochem?!?!]
There were other issues. The instructor would sit for as long as a minute digesting the slides as they came up to propose a possible meaning in the slide. More often than not, she was wrong. She couldn’t answer the most basic of questions regarding basic chemical groups with respect to toxicity. She was wrong on 75% of her basic chemistry (organic and basic basic).
This was the person who was supposed to teach me about Contaminant Chemistry and she couldn’t even tell me why the basic building block, an amine, would be toxic. I know the answer to that and I am not a biochem major. One of my co-workers (who happened to graduate from the same college as I at the same time) turned to me more than once and asked me if she was a bit mad or if the explanation was ALL wrong. Simply put — she wasn’t mad.
I gave up four hours into a 40-hour course. That’s 1/10. I went home and wrote a lengthy email to the school sponsoring the workshop and told them to contact me. They did within an hour, via email, asking me to call them with my concerns.
I called and told them why I was bothered by the instructor, explaining that almost nobody else was as saavy regarding chemistry as I was in the class and suggested that they were being misinformed. I gave some of the examples from above and, with a very dour voice, the rep informed me that these things made them very concerned with the quality of education being presented to the participants. I asked for and received a refund of my company’s money spent on sending me to this workshop. In addition, I was given a voucher for future classes and asked if I would consider the courses offered in the future. I told them that I would (and I would, because the classes offered so far by the school were superior by far to what I experienced today).
My week’s plans changed in 4 hours. I wasn’t interested in anything related to learning by noon. The last hour was painful to endure — I almost got up and left before lunch. I did leave twice while class was in session and grabbed a smoke, hoping it would calm down my irritation, and it did — for about 5 minutes each. I tried very hard to give the instructor a chance, but when she didn’t do anything right by noon, I threw up my arms and left.
Granted, I had unforeseen circumstances arise due to childcare, but the problems were not insurmountable. I used the issue to excuse myself and I went home in disgust.
As I have indicated in the past, I am generally tolerant of hiccups in almost anything. Lack of preparation and ineptitude, I can’t forgive.
And yes, I am still on my soapbox six hours after I wrote the whole damned thing off — that should tell you (if you know me) the level of my frustration.
Grr.