Judith Wermuth-Atkinson

Judith was an excellent CC professor. She makes herself readily available to help students. I will agree that she plays favorites but all it requires to become a favorite is to actually show interest in the class and the material. You don't have to have the knowledge of a philosopher or even talk for half the class. Go to her office hours, express that you are having difficulty if you need help. Here are the 3 simple ways to get the grade you want in her class: 1st - read a good portion of the material or sparknotes. It is important that you enter the class at least knowing major themes in the book. 2nd- Participate, Participate, Participate! Even if you are not sure of your answer. I am a shy student who didn't really like to speak up but she loves students who engage in the conversation. 3rd - Take good notes. They are really helpful for the midterm and final.

Just wanted to largely agree with the reviews below: Judith is not a great teacher, although she is not, in fact, an evil reptile out to swallow your grade whole. I do want to point out that previous classes, as evidenced by the culpa reviews from years past, have not had such a violent reaction to judith's teaching style, and I will note that one of the classes from which this slew of negative reviews comes actually got judith only for the second semester of lithum after having a fantastic, amazing, wonderful teacher. That said, many of the reviews come from people who did not have said fantastic teacher at all. I'm going to try to be as fair as I can in this review, but I must say that before I sort of detached myself and stopped caring, Judith's course annoyed me about as much as it annoyed some people who have written particularly virulent reviews. But I don't feel that her course is one that you should immediately switch out of, and hopefully by giving an account of my experience of her class, you can determine if you are a student more like those she has had in previous years (who, from all I know, have really enjoyed her class), or a student more like those from my class this semester (in which case, RUN RUN RUN RUN RUN as fast as you can, make up an extracurricular activity, lie and say that you have a different major, do whatever you have to, but don't take this lithu…

I'm a little confused as to why people are so unanimously against Judith. To be honest, she's a pretty standard CC prof. The trick? Just do the reading. Seriously. I suspect the reviews below were written by people who tended not to do the reading or something. She plays favorites a little, but I wasn't one of her favorites and still got an A-. My advice is to at the very least be engaged and look interest. Remember that she's REALLY passionate about the course (don't worry, she'll remind you continuously throughout the course if you forget.)

SWITCH OUT OF JUDITH’S SECTION. Before it’s too late. For your own sanity and well-being and for the sake of your education. Before I elaborate upon that, let me list Judith’s strengths, to be fair: - She provides a very thorough historical context for everything we read, which is usually quite interesting. - She seems to care about her students (in a certain way; if you go to her office hours you’ll see what I mean, maybe). - She knows a lot about the texts and is clearly enthusiastic about teaching them. But let me talk about her weaknesses, which, as a previous reviewer said, far outweigh her strengths. In a word, Judith is not dumb — she is a dreadful teacher. Let me break it down for you: a.) There is only one correct answer to every question Judith poses in class. b.) Class discussions are not discussions at all, but guessing games with her (see a.) c.) She blatantly plays favorites. d.) Her essay topics (as mentioned in previous reviews) and expectations for assignments are unclear and often make little sense. Allow me to expand: a.) This is the biggest grievance I had with Judith’s teaching style: as a previous reviewer described, there are "correct" answers to the questions Judith poses to the class. I agree that there are more-valid and less-valid ways of interpreting texts — the validity being dependent on how sound the interpretation's reasoning is — but the fact t…

I’m going to try to be as fair as possible here and will thus begin with the pros of the class before I move on to the cons. Notice I say “try, because I’m sure the boiling vitriol that emerges in my soul whenever I think about Judith will soon overtake my consciousness. So to be fair, there’s no doubt that Judith cares immensely about the class. She stated during one meeting that she has essentially devoted her life to teaching the core here, and I believe that. She knows the ins and outs of essentially every work on the syllabus and you can tell that she spends a lot of time poring over the texts before she comes to class. She also gives historical context on the authors at the outset of every class, which really does help at times in understanding the motivation and the reason that the philosophy was written. Here ends my short list of pros. Everyone in the class seemed to have differing problems with Judith, but my own personal unforgivable problem with her is that she fundamentally does not trust any of her students. What I mean by this is that for Judith, there’s no such thing as having read a text and not understanding a part of it. If you are unable to provide the exact answer she wants either in an in-class question or on her homework assignments, she assumes automatically that you just did not read. Seriously. When she hands back essays or homework assignments, she a…

If you are an incoming freshman and you are reading the last two posts and quivering in your boots asking yourself "what kind of monstrosity could I expect when I walk into class", chill out. She's not a snake, or even a member of the reptile family. She is all human, part good teacher, part bad. As far as english teachers go, as you should know by now, you have to write like they want you to write (and even think like they want you to think) to a certain extent. Professor can sometimes take this to an extreme, but she has many good qualities as well. She is highly intelligent and appeared to me to be an understanding person. When I asked to skip class once at the end of the semester she said it would be fine. With that said, she can be a little pessimistic about the students at the beginning of the year, hinting that she doesn't believe you when you say "I read the book cover to cover". Make a good first impression. It's important. Seriously. All in all I didn't think she was that bad, and I found unlike some that I could disagree with her. If you make a point that isn't what she's looking for, she'll often shake her head or tut. While admittedly this can be bothersome, if you ignore and continue your point, respond to her criticism and make a decent argument, she will respect you for it. Most of the time she won't agree, and her response may seem deflective, but believe me d…

I read all the reviews on CULPA before deciding to stay in Judith's class, and it turned out to be the worst decision I made in my college career so far. I should have been smarter and took the hint to switch: when there are only 10 people left in the class, there's probably something wrong with the teacher. But I thought I could work hard and prove everyone wrong. I was so wrong. The first couple of classes were excruciating. Time could not pass fast enough. Judith picks favorites very early on, and then she sticks to them. If you don't speak in class, she will give you an F for participation, which is 40% of your grade. A lot of people in my class were threatened to get an F if they didn't start talking more. She has a distinct way of teaching. There is only one right answer, either you get it right and she praises you with a "Bravo!" or "Fantastic!" or "Beautiful!", or you get it wrong and she gives you the stink eye and ignores you for the rest of the class. This has happened to me. You opinion basically doesn't matter - if it is not the same as her opinion, it is not worth discussing. I am a student athlete, and she has given me so much trouble for this. First I approached her and asked her to sign my application for the athlete tutor program, and she wouldn't sign it because she said "this is a class where you read books and learn to express your thoughts, how could some…

Dear Judith, I would like to apologize. I know I've let you down. And, frankly, I've let myself down, too. I really should have known what a "mode of critical thought" is. What is wrong with me? Why can't I speak your language? And I'm so sorry you were sick one day. I totally understand why you'd make us have a four-hour class on a Thursday evening to compensate for your absence. After all, you are really forgiving when students are sick or have other commitments. It's only fair I'd be sympathetic towards your situation, too. I'm sorry I wasn't able to read 500+ pages of Dostoevsky in one weekend. I wish, in retrospect, that I had sacrificed my work in all my other classes in order to read the texts for your class at a level you'd find only passably sufficient. I suppose my most burdensome regret, though, Judy, is not having been one of your favorites. I let us both down in my inability to win your approval. I only wish I could have sustained that twinkle in your koala eyes long enough to regain my confidence as a reader and writer. But, instead, because I couldn't attend a voluntary activity outside of class, I'm doomed to be haunted by my inability to win a "EXXXXXCELLENT" in response to an indirect, ambiguous question. I don't know what to do to work for your approval. I am willing to do anything, except go to the Cloisters or the Opera with you. But just let me know.

This was the first time Judith taught CC and I had to write a review to counteract all the inaccurate and obnoxious reviews below. Simply, Judith is BRILLIANT and she cares immensely about each and every student. She might have a semi-unclear way of presenting a few topics (for me it was Kant - but then again Kant is confusing for everyone the first time). If you need help, she is more than happy to meet with you one on one, at a time that is most convenient for you. She will re-arrange her schedule for you! Yes, she is very opinionated, but she is not so harsh when you suggest something inaccurate, as long as you back yourself up with something semi-reasonable. It is not hard to get an A or A- in her class. The paper topics are more fun than most other CC classes as they are creative even though she assigns a specific topic. In fact, I didn't write one essay: one was a persuasive letter to a book critic, and the other was a dialogue. In terms of tests, the midterm and final were both manageable. They were about equal in difficulty and with some hard core studying of your notes, they should be no problem. I didn't even have to re-open the books to study and there were passage IDs. I highly recommend taking very detailed notes. Everything she tests on is pretty much covered in class. There may be one surprise question but is is totally doable. I want to re-iterate that Judith i…

The review directly below this one is superb. It is, in fact the best CULPA review I have ever read. I was planning on logging on and riping Judith a new one, but that has already been done for me in an absurdly clear, professional (which, as I'm sure you have realized by now is remarkable given the professionalism of this professor) manner. I can only add examples to the critiques of the previous student. Judith is like the opposite of a blessing in disguise. She is more like an extremely toxic snake slithering around in a beautiful pasture. You will start the semester off really well. Her discussions are directed in such a way that when you answer a question 'correctly' (a concept I find absurd in a literature class anyway) she will sing your praises and commend your intelligence. Savor the beautiful pasture while it lasts my friend, for the snake will bite sooner or later. Amidst all the incredible examples from the previous reviewer, I am shocked that he or she forgot to mention the first essay topic we received this semester (which was assigned with a similarly unreasonable timeline). Here it is in all its glory, copied straight from courseworks: Discuss a few different modes of critical thought represented in the literary works we have read so far. You should focus on the Aeneid, the Divine Comedy, the Decameron, and either the Confessions or Metamorphoses. Instructions:…