My School Hired an Unqualified Computer Teacher

Now there’s going to have be some back story behind this because it’s been a continuing shit storm for months now.

This year I decided to take AP Computer Science, a class where it teaches basic java and learn some nifty little tricks along the way. However I've already known java for some time now so the class wasn’t exactly of use to me, I was mostly taking it for the extra GPA points and AP Credit for college. I figured the class would be an easy A, which it is, and would be almost like a study period for me and I wouldn’t get very involved with the class. Sadly this is the exact opposite of what actually happens.

The “teacher” of the class is probably one of the worst teachers I've ever actually had throughout my entire schooling life. I could go on for hours about how horrible this guy is. But instead i’ll just give a couple examples of some of the things he’s done from the past 6 months I've been in his class.

For starters, he doesn’t even know Java. As amazing as that sounds, my school which “specializes” in our technology department hired a man to a teach a programming language he barely knows. We looked up his personal website and under his listed languages he lists only 3 web development languages. Not only does he not list java but actually listed HTML as one of the languages he knows along with PHP and CSS. Already off to a good start. Not long after that we found his LinkedIn page, and to our already amused eyes. He listed himself as a “Professional Web Engineer” knowing PHP, CSS, HTML, and under previous experience he actually states that he added a paypal donate button to a local business website.

Now we’re already laughing at this point, I mean not only does the guy clearly not know Java, but he doesn’t think about what he says before he says it. Now a lot of us have this issue and we all slip from time to time. But nothing like this. From quotes of “No one put a NERF G-U-N to your head to force you to take this class” to “In India they practice coding by writing it because they can’t afford computers there”. Yes, a high school computer teacher told a class that has around 10 people of the Indian culture that India couldn’t afford computers to learn programming on. Now I've seen teachers say some stupid shit but nothing like this. Usually when a teacher slips they apologize and admit they were wrong. But not this man, he was content that India could not afford computers and they learned programming by writing it.

Those are just two examples of hundreds of examples I could tell you about. But instead lets jump right into his newest endeavor to teach us Java using printed packets of some card game he found online.

Now this was probably one of the best moves he could’ve done. He gave a class which 90% of don’t even know what a String is or how to even print “Hello World” a 4 page packet to write on where we created Arrays of a Card Object that contained a suit, rank, and a value. And he expected us to write out entire classes on multiple pages a full system to create cards, sort them, and then print them out. Now this was easy enough for those four or five of us who actually knew what we were doing.

After about 15 minutes I complete the entire packet and give it back to him and he says “This should’ve taken you two hours” and he gets a disappointed look in his face like I somehow tricked his system. After that he told me to go sit down and do something productive. So I do my usual routine and put in my Earbuds and open Spotify. About 30 seconds later he comes over and attempts to grab my phone out of my hands with the reasoning “We will not be using Technology today”. This is an AP Computer Science Class. And my teacher states that we will not be using technology. Incredible.

After that I was a little ticked off, so I login to my school domain account on windows and start researching a couple libraries and the Mobile SDK on the Phantom Drone my school had recently purchased. Just soon after he comes over and decides to unplug the power cable from my computer and states “If you continue to disrespect me and go against my rules I will write you up to administration.”. After this I came to the conclusion that this man was either insane or his Wife wears the pants in their marriage.

After everyone finished up the packet assignment, which mind you took some kids two whole days to complete. He finally allowed us to use our computers again. Sadly this excitement was short lived because the next day we returned to locked systems saying we again, will not be using computers today.

At this point the class became a joke. We now use our computers probably 2 times a week out of the 4 times we actually have the class. The assistant principals sit in the classroom because of how many complaints he’s gotten. And the class has just gotten to a point to where I debate on even showing up. And I doubt it’ll get any better.