Being in college means we have between 12 and 16 years of education under our belts. That’s a lot of learning.

Being students for the majority of our lives, we’ve seen a number of different teaching styles;  the “overeager, play with glue” kindergarten teacher, the “too serious to be taken seriously” eighth grade teacher, the “trying desperately to be cool” high school teacher and then there is the college professor.

Although it’s impossible to identify all the types of college professors, the group can be narrowed down to two main types.

The first, professors who love what they do, have wonderful personalities but often get side-tracked and onto hysterical tangents. Second, professors who give you ample note-taking material, write everything down but suck all the fun from your life with their monotone voices. Which would you prefer?

The first educator, aka the entertainer, normally gives written examples without understandable explanations. He or she is easily distracted and tends to stay distracted until looking at the clock, realizing a tangent on Internet dating sites has lasted almost 10 minutes. The entertainer expects the students to do plenty of work outside the classroom to understand the material not gone over in class.

The second, aka the “enter-lamer,” normally reads directly off papers, he or she gives plenty of directions, reading assignments and lectures. The “enter-lamer” is most often monotone and can fall asleep to the sound of his or her own voice. Information is repeated numerous times with the “enter-lamer,” because once is never enough.

Senior sociology major Nikki Gutierrez said she’d stay off her phone and willingly follow the classroom rules for a good professor.

“I like the teachers that expect a lot from me as a student, even if they can be a pain. Those are the teachers I respect. I’ve only had a few of these teachers, the strict, yet hilarious ones that really want you to understand the material,” Gutierrez said.

I’d also rather have a professor who expects me to carry my own weight rather than just give me nothing more than words on a paper. Who wouldn’t want to sit in a class and laugh for an hour rather than be read to, word-for-word, off a handout?

Journalism professor Robert Humphrey has been teaching at Sacramento State for 26 years and is the perfect example of an entertainer. He has never read any of his ratings on Ratemyprofessor.com, gets good reviews on his student evaluations and thinks he is a personable teacher. Humphrey is one of the better teachers at Sac State who blends humor, sarcasm and learning.

What about the other teachers, should they adapt Humphrey’s teaching style?

“They can do whatever they want. I find it ridiculous that people would get up and walk out of a lecture, I think that’s disrespectful, it’s uncivilized,” Humphrey said. “I think my time in a classroom is important. Maybe students don’t want to learn, but I’m operating under the assumption that they should learn.”

As students, we pay tuition increases, work for grants and scholarships while professors get paid whether we pass their class or not. I would be happier about paying the tuition increases if all my teachers made me laugh and learn.

If I have to pay more, I’d rather sit through an enjoyable class period than be bored to death, fall asleep and not learn. Take heed future students, read your professors’ reviews before choosing a class to find the teaching style you are willing to pay extra money for.

Ashley Jung can be reached at [email protected]