ITT ITT technical institute teachers suck, ripoff, bs classes Columbia , South Carolina

Jon, I am very concerned about what you have said for several reasons. I taught CAD drafting and design at ITT at the south Houston, TX campus several years ago; I am one of the reasons why numerous ITT campuses nationwide were stormed by the FBI in April of 2004. I even saw the very campus where I used to work being stormed by the FBI on the 4:00 news that day.

I'll back up a bit here and tell you my story. I was very well qualified to teach at ITT. I had worked in the field of drafting and design for over eighteen years by that time, I had done many types of work in many industries, and I had the required education. I thought it would be interesting to try something new; my mother taught high school, and I had always thought teaching was a noble profession. I was well prepared to do my best for my students, so that they could enjoy the same success that I had had in that career field.

For the most part, I met many other instructors who had even better credentials than I had, and who shared my same dedication, but some definitely did not. I had heard reports of some instructors being rude to students, or not being able to adequately present the subject matter; and I believed those reports, because I saw evidence of this myself concerning those few instructors.

However, on the flip side, some of the students that ended up in my classes brought their problems with them. I can remember instances where I had to tell a female student to please not sit in a male student's lap during lecture, to tell another student to stop throwing paper wads at me when I was writing on the whiteboard, to send a student who got off his ADHD meds and started yelling at everyone else to the dean, etc. I was even threatened by a student once when teaching at night, and was escorted safely to my vehicle by other instructors.

However, probably the saddest instances were students who just didn't seem to 'get it' - who, for some reason or other, did not have the drive to succeed, or simply could not comprehend the material. Being out in the field is no joke. You must be prepared for the work and you must prove yourself. No one knows this better than I do, as a woman in a predominately male-oriented field. As for the former type of student, I would run across everything from those who thought they could 'buy' a grade to students who would call themselves "hands-on learners" and want me to practically do their labs for them while they watched me. Those students would get quite annoyed with me when I tried to encourage to do the work themselves.

As for the latter, I would occasionally run across older students who were fearful of computers, and embarrassed at the fact that the younger students were familiar with them; and sometimes they took their anger out on instructors. Yet probably the most tragic case was of a young man who was eager to succeed, but whom I thought possibly had a learning disability. He could not envision three-dimensional objects in two-dimensional form, which is absolutely essential for any field of drafting and design. I spent so much time with him in class that other students started complaining, so I had to let up and tell him to come to my 'tutoring' times. I even gave up lunch times to help him.

I wondered how he was ever able to pass the "entrance exam" for the drafting and design course in the first place; I don't see how that was possible. I started believing the rumors I had heard from other instructors about the recruiters giving the answers to the "entrance exams" away to prospective students so they could pass. I hope to God they don't do this for the Electronics school; if a student can't tell red from green he or she cannot legally perform such work.

I never just "passed" students, and neither did most instructors that I knew. In fact, a few of my students failed my classes - either because they just didn't do the work, did not do the work at an acceptable level, or exceeded allowable state absences. To my surprise, many of those students would show up in the next quarter without being required to repeat the past quarter. I started asking questions about this to my superiors, but got no answers. Then, I was flat-out told to mark a student present when he was absent, because his absences were work-related and he had complained. Legally, we could not mark him present, but his instructors (including me) were told, upon threat of being fired, to mark him present regardless. I took note of the preceding incidents, among many others - names, dates, and times.

I enjoyed my teaching career, but there was NO WAY I would accept being complicit in any illegal activity. I gave the ITT management a chance to explain the incidents I mentioned previously, but still did not receive any answers. Because I asked such questions, I was labelled a "troublemaker" and given the worst schedules that the new "dean" could possibly construe. I finally quit and went back to work in the industry, of course making more money than I had been at ITT. I mulled over what I had seen and experienced at ITT, and decided to contact the Department of Education. They were very interested in the information I had to provide. This was in late 2002; the schools were stormed by the FBI in April of 2004, and the news mentioned "violations of state attendance and grade requirements". I know I was not the only person to stand up to this mess, there were many others; but at least, I thought, things would improve.

Your experience leads me to believe that perhaps things have NOT improved at ITT. I would suggest that you contact the Department of Education of your state, and tell them your concerns; you certainly have every right to do so. As far as your father is concerned, I'd suggest that you come up with a contingency plan - such as, you will leave ITT and attend another college or technical institute (hopefully, one with a better reputation). You certainly would not want to be stuck in a career where you really did not have the skills to perform well enough to succeed, or even stay on the job, and be stuck with a huge loan payment to pay off.