I honestly feel uncomfortable to reflect upon this class, and to be requested to do so in order to receive a grade only deepens this discomfort. Anytime feedback becomes mandatory, the one providing feedback is placed in a difficult position. This is the same concern I have for the required questionnaire. I have significant questions regarding how one's grade will be affected dependent upon the outcome of these assignments. In my experience as a student, this is highly unusual. Herein, you gain access to my "confession," my mask of truth regarding your performance as an instructor; however, the truth in this is minimal. If it is truth you seek, feedback you seek, I say you need not look further than the faces of your students in the classroom. The frustration they show when trying to gain clarification and they are rebuffed with comments about their lateness. What is the purpose of instructing if you simply refer the student to gain clarification from another student? Surely there is no honesty that I can provide you. You will not find in my words an ounce of enlightenment as I have been discredited as a poor student. I am a poor student. I am rich enough to pay for classes that provide me no benefit, and yet not rich enough to afford the level of scholarship a better scholar can provide. My longing and my disappointment are the two occupied within the same scope. And I am trapped within the ignorance of performing unnecessary tasks to individuals who have no interest in my enlightenment. I am a poor student whose opinion will mean nothing as it is not my goal to excite the ego. My goal is to transcend mediocrity. My frustration is having my time wasted with tasks that do not build upon my becoming better at recognizing and overcoming mediocrity both within myself and my interactions with the world.

I am writing a reflection for a course, not as a reflection of the course but as a reflection of myself. Surely if I wrote anything else, a reflection of myself would overshadow my words, and so I will reflect on myself. I have been absent from class. I have been late to class. These facts have been dutifully noted by you. Of the five courses I've taken this semester, without a doubt this course has taken up the bulk of my time, my energy and my thought process. This is not due to my being slow, though at times after speaking to you, I feel perhaps that I should augment my definition of slow. This has been an exhausting experience. I am exhausted by the shear inability to fulfill your requests to the letter, by reading material in which I am forced to research on my own in order to understand how it fits into a "Intro to Folklore" course, and this has caused my other courses to suffer. This is not a confession of defeat. I am frustrated by the lack of intro materials, by having the onus on me as a the student to read upwards 200 pages a week for one intro course, only to come to class and not be given clear guidelines as to how I as the student should synthesis this information. I do not learn from students. I learn from instructors who are expected to have the breadth of knowledge to expound finite points into usable information. If this does not occur, what then is the purpose of teacher/student relationship, and how does one justify extending their educational career if it only results in an adversarial relationship between the two? These are questions for myself as I no longer have a desire for professorship. I find the field void of humility and full of those attempting to elevate themselves with useless knowledge. A few of the articles are examples of this ineffective and counterproductive use of knowledge.

I question the notion of "enjoy." There were useful materials given in this course. But they did not seem to be congruent or follow a pattern of connectivity. It seems you tried to follow up articles to example the chapters in the Folklore textbook; however, it was not a smooth transition from the text to these articles. Perhaps another combination would have been more effective. As the course moved through the different aspects of folklore, the readings and the ways in which I could use them "changed" for lack of a better term.

Please do not ask me to discuss my writing. This is not a writing course. As far a grade is concerned I would grade my performance in class and my work a B. I find this an odd question to reflect upon.

I can not continue on with this assignment.

Thank your for the course and I wish you the best in your endeavors.

Dana B. Sayer