Gaps can happen even at the college level

[Pegasus]

I've been debating whether to post this or not as I see it as reassuring but can see how it may also cause someone to stress MORE.

 

I attended a large state university and took calculus I the first quarter and did well. When I started the next calculus class the second quarter under a different professor, I soon discovered that I was NOT prepared for it. I, along with several other students who had attended class with me the first quarter, were soon flunking this second course. When we approached the professor, he explained that the professor we had the first quarter did not typically teach calculus. He said that it was not fair but that we were on our own to catch up, learn what we SHOULD have learned the first quarter, and keep up in class the best we could.

 

It wasn't easy but I finished the quarter with a B.

 

So, I guess how I see it is that even if we teach our students perfectly with no gaps :lol::lol::lol: there is no guarantee that they won't later have gaps and have to overcome them on their own. It's not the end of the world and can even end up a good learning lesson.

 

Pegasus

[Nan in Mass]

Good reminder. Thank you. Just when I happened to be worrying about gaps in pre-calculus, too...

[cathmom]

The same thing happened at my college with Spanish. I had intermediate at a community college with an excellent teacher. The other students had it with a horrible professor who was gone a couple of years later when she didn't get tenure. During third year Spanish, we spent a whole class going over stuff I learned the year before. I asked one of the students, "Didn't you guys learn this last year?" He replied, "We had HER last year!" Then it made perfect sense to me! :lol: