Susan Gevirtz

After taking this course, I now have absolutely no love of poetry anymore. First of all, Ms. Gevirtz is very confusing when she is trying to instruct the class. She is very vague in her answers to questions and you will never recieve a straight answer, even in regards to how to approach assignments. Most of the class consists of talking about the work of certain authors, however many of the readings have little to no value when it comes to poetry. They are complex and out of a class of approximately thirty students only five students did any talking. Ms. Gevirtz seemed to be under the assumption that we would understand these concepts without any guidance by the instructor. The were some instances where the instructor talked down to students if they did not know how to grasp the concepts. There was one instance where she said that we had to be treated as elementary school children, which many of us took offense to. there was also a factor involved in availability of the instructor. She does not respond well to e-mails and she will be very hard to reach if you have questions concerning the assigned reading. I can honestly say that I feel that I have been ripped off by the State University system, because for the dollar amounts that are being paid we could at very least have quality instructors. I learned nothing in this course and that is the first time that I can say that with sincere honesty. I hate to say all negative things about a class and instructor so three of the positive aspects of the course were the fact that you will have the opportunity to see several authors speak to the class. They come in for hourly sessions and some of them actually write poetry. You will get to hear some interesting poetry that maybe you didn't know existed. The other good part of the class ironically is the final project. It is one of the few times that you will have the opportunity to be creative in this course. Lastly, there are no exams in here. If exams were given, everyone would surely score low unless they have already learned the concepts contained within the required reading.