God complexes and entitlement

So, I took a practice practical and practice written for anatomy yesterday. (The former was organized by the second years, the latter was in Gray's). Barely passed the practical and solidly flunked the written. Methinks today I will memorize the syllabus, which apparently is the key to success is anatomy.

My anatomy prof is a bit of a jerk -- ok, a serious jerk. In lab, there are a few professors who wander around helping us find structures. One of them, as he was digging out the sympathetic chain ganglia for us, gave us a beautiful explanation of the nervous system, which our actual professor can't teach for a million bucks. We asked if he could give a NS lecture to the class, and apparently Dr. Jerk won't let him because "students shouldn't have to seek outside help."

Going along with that, one of my classmates bumped into the doctor who did our radiology lectures, who was surprised to learn that there would be a radiology component to the anatomy exam. She offered to hold office hours Sunday morning for student questions. As I got dressed after the practice practical, I heard some of the other women in my class bitching that Dr. R. was having Sunday office hours. "Sunday morning. I want to sleep."

Well, so do I. I'm sure Dr. R. would rather sleep, or be with her family, or whatever. As far as I can tell, office hours are totally optional for professors here. Unlike in college, where they are required to hold a certain number of office hours (which they are paid for), here they do it on their own time. And so even though I value my rest, I also am incredibly grateful to any lecturer who is willing to reteach the material so that we understand it.

Most of my class is pretty cool. And I know we're all stressed and tired and cranky about these upcoming exams. But ingratitude like that just smacks of entitlement.