This is what I wrote:
Hello Jeremy, this is Shawn White from your evening Massage class.
In this email I am addressing several concerns I have about the classroom environment. Many of these concerns have already been addressed by the student body of the class. The primary reason I am communicating with you via email is because for me, your classroom has become a hostile learning environment.
The intention of this and all other communications pertaining to your performance is with the intent to help you, help yourself become a more successful educator. It is also with the intent to ensure that the education I receive from you matches the excellent education standards of our school.
In this email I will be addressing three major areas that I am concerned by as a student: the hostile learning environment, school policies and professionalism, and your teaching methods.
The Hostile Learning Environment
I feel like your class has become a hostile learning environment, and I am very uncomfortable as a student in your class.
As of late I have noticed a progressive decline in professional communication within the classroom. Last week you introduced a racial slur into a conversation, and then defined it with your own personal connotation to Jarnell and I. You have also begun using profanity throughout your lecture.
When vulgarities are used in a classroom it deteriorates the professionalism of the learning environment and confuses students. It definitely confuses me and causes me a lot of anxiety by making me feel ethically compromised. Feeling ethically compromised causes me to feel emotionally violated and impairs my ability to retain information throughout the lecture, and study time.
I was offended by the racial slur you used in the classroom, and I ask that you please refrain from using any additional racial slurs and profanity during class.
The way that you communicate to Jarnell makes me feel like you are flirting with him. You spend an inappropriate amount of time describing how good looking his body is during class, and especially during hands on practice. The comments you make about his body make me feel anxious and no longer in a safe learning environment. I am experiencing these things because it feels like you are sexualizing a student. It also makes me worry about how you would describe my body while on the table in front of the other students of the class. It makes it very difficult to learn while experiencing anxiety and trying to sit in a classroom where it doesn’t feel like a safe environment.
I would suggest that before complimenting someone’s body, pause and take a moment and consider how your words might be received.
In class you frequently tease, verbally prod and insult students, whether they are in class, out on break or absent. In class you have insulted my intelligence in front of the other students, belittled me for asking questions and done the same to other students. I am filled with a sense of defeat while in class, and I experience a profound level of dread when I have to come to class. This makes it impossible to feel safe in your classroom, and therefore it makes it very difficult to learn from you.
To make the classroom a safe learning environment, will you please stop verbally teasing, prodding, and insulting us?
At times you will ask a student what is bothering them. In many of these instances the students will tell you that they do not want to discuss it with you. It is then that you ask them over and over, until they share what it is that is bothering them, with you. You have done this to me, I asked you to stop asking me, and to leave me alone, but you continued to push me. The only reason I answered you was because I felt threated by you, and that if I didn’t answer, then I would get into trouble. When I feel threatened I am experiencing fear, and when I feel fear it makes me angry. These emotions make me unable to maintain my focus in class, making me to want to escape your presence to a safer, more relaxed environment.
I would like to see this problem resolved. The best way that I believe that you could do this, is once a student asks you to stop doing something to them, please follow their instructions and leave them alone.
In class you described me as overconfident and egotistical in front of the other students in the middle of class. You also, insulted my intelligence and told the other students that I am learning too slowly, wasting the class’s time. You also made fun of Dallas for addressing her issues with the office, and attempt to vocalize her concerns. You have also made fun of Jasmine for missing classes, even when she is not in the class.
Your comments toward me deeply offended me and made me feel embarrassed. I was also confused by why you would confront Dallas in the middle of class about your issues with her. It also offended me that you would make fun of Jasmine when she was not even in the classroom to defend herself.
Please stop attempting to embarrass me and hurt my feelings during class. I do not appreciate your barrage of negativity directed toward me. I believe that the other students of the class would also like for you to stop making fun, insulting, and belittling them too.
School Policies and Professionalism
Some of the school policies that you have personally adjusted are hurting my ability to learn, this next section addresses your policies and professionalism:
I do not want to get out of class at 9:30pm. I would rather start at the regular start time of 6:00pm and leave at the scheduled end time that the administration has set. I know that you have a long drive home after class, but I am paying a lot of money for this education, and I need to have a break every hour to attain the highest level of learning potential. Receiving a higher level of education is more important to me than getting out of class at 9:30 pm.
Will you please return hourly breaks back to the class?
During class you speak poorly of the Becks book, and state that the information in that book is unreliable and out of date. You also teach us information that is taught in your chiropractic book, often leading to conflicting information. This is very confusing to me, and on many occasions I do not know which to commit to memory.
Will you please teach us the information that the administration wants us to know?
During class you speak poorly of the administration, the owner of the school, their policies, and its curriculum. You have told me in class that you are embarrassed by the way the school operates. You have also told us to avoid communication with the office because they do not care about its students. This reduces student moral and discredits the school.
Will you please stop speaking poorly of the administration, its owner, and the school itself?
Your Teaching Methods
Will you please include some interactive discussion, group activities or learning techniques that include more than just lecture? I know that at this point addressing this issue any further may seem moot, but I am paying a lot for this education. I would like to see some additional teaching methods used to help me achieve the excellence that this school can provide. It would be a great opportunity during this business section to let us have some group time to brainstorm some ideas for our business layout, and plan. I know that Jarnell would be able to provide the rest of us with some great logistical ideas with his building experience, and it would be a great opportunity for the class to establish a more comfortable learning environment.
I know that you said that you are unable to deviate from the teaching guidelines of the school, because you said that the school would lose its accreditation if you did, and that you are afraid of getting terminated by teaching the class in any other way besides lecture. I do not understand why this would be the case, but maybe you could ask the office if you could make some changes to how you’re teaching your class so that you can help improve the learning experience for the students.
With that said I wanted to address a problem that has been brought up several other times by the class. Will you please answer our questions when we ask them? Typically when we ask you questions you tell us that we are not studying enough, reading enough or data mining correctly. Will you please stop assuming that we are not reading and studying the material in the book? Most times you never answer any of our questions; other times you tell us to look for the answer in the book, sometimes you completely ignore the questions, and at times you insult our intelligence for asking a question. It is a very rare occasion for you to actually answer a question without resistance. So please, when one of us asks a question, will you just answer the question?
Thank you for your time.
Respectfully
Shawn White
