Mary Redick

I had the pleasure of taking a class with Dr. Redick, 9. years ago. She is all over the place but is a shining example of anthropology as a whole. It should be noted that any class is what you make of it and that you should look at your on short comings as opposed to insulting a respected scholar.

Former Student: Who is employed as an Archeologist (Ph.D)

If you would like to take a class in which you do not know the schedule from day to day, and grading is a mysterious entity, and expectations are inconsistent from class to class, then this is definitely the class for you. If you're like me and prefer more security in the class schedule, expectations, and grading, then stay away.

"Old Mary" will open your mind. She teaches from her amazing personal life experiences. She is silly,funny and kind. I thoroughly enjoyed her class. I am surprised that she has so many bad reviews. I think she is one of the greatest teachers at city college because of her off the wall teaching style. She is far from traditional...dont take this class if you need a structured envirmonment because her classroom definetly is not. She rocks.....take a chance on this old girl she might just change your life.

Mary was a very considerate and thoughtful teacher who was free in her lecture style. If you enjoy spontaneity and openness then I would recommend her Visions of the Sacred anthro class. I don't know why she got such poor reviews in the other Anthro classes, but maybe Visions of the Sacred is more her speciality. It is a unique class just concerning the material and she encourages each student to explore and research ways it relates to them personally. If you are honest with her and someone who enjoys attention after class, she is for you. If you crave a rigid class with strict rules, then she isn't. She goes with the flow, and if you can too, then it's fun and interesting. An A is not hard to achieve if you complete all of the assignments. (I didn't, but I still earned a B.)

While her approach to teaching is unorthodox, and (it seems) grossly misinterpreted as a lack of understanding on her part - I can easily call Mary Redick one of the best teachers I have ever encountered. Why is that? Because, in my perception, she actually attempts to *teach*, and does so with passion - instead of droning on with detachment. She genuinely cares about her her students and the subject material she speaks of; along with understanding that biases do not lead to greater knowledge, and that integrated learning can only be accomplished by going a few steps past the given material. The integration and interpretation of information (taking knowledge to a higher level) cannot be taught (hence a focus on sef-directed learning). In her own subtle way (admittedly difficult to catch unless tuned-in to notice key ideas beyond literal word meaning), she is attempting to transmit an important concept - that everything is interconnected, and nothing can be honestly judged until bias is recognized and wiped away. Unlike many teachers, she emphasizes the importance of emotion as part of the learning process - and that is something most everyone should take to heart.

Ms. Redick's teaching style is absolutely unorthodox, but her class is great. She draws from her own experience which is the foundation of anthropology. It may seem as though she's talking about herself, but she doesn't really. The wisest thing I know is that one should take everything with a grain of salt, including the way in which Ms. Redick explains the material. In my opinion, her goal is to give a faceted view to the student as to give them the path to finding their own experience through hers. Which is also in my opinion, an excellent way to teach. I loved her class, unfortunately, I was forced to withdraw due to the necessity of working to pay rent. I will definitely take that class again!

I didn't think it was possible to go wrong taking a cultural anthropology class. One really must work at ruining such a fascinating subject. Mary Redick has done just that. Her lectures are completely off base with the subject matter. There is no structure at all in her class, which makes it difficult to know what is expected of you. I just regret that I completed the class and will not be able to experience a cultural anthropology class from a competent teacher. She means well, but does not deliver.

I am 25 years old. I have been attending classes for 20 years since kindergarden and I think that Mary Reedick and Catherine Anne Phillips are the worst teachers I have ever had. Please don't waste your time here. Even if you consider that 33 dollars per course is cheap, I would recommend you that instead of taking her class and wasting your money in this way, you eat 33 double cheeseburgers at McDonald's at 16th and Mission. That's a more fullfilling anthropological experience.

I only had this teacher for 2 weeks before I gave her the boot and decided to go with a psych credit instead. I completely concurr with the assertions here that she is self absorbed, and will add to that by saying she is a pseudo-liberal windbag. All she really did was try to plug in her dispisal of European culture and every open opportunity. Granted, SOME of her diatrabical rants had merit, but it really hard for me, a Euro-American, to have to held hostage to another Euro-American talking about how bad European culture is. I would also add that unless you're the type of person who is entertained quite easily, you will get more stimulation watching the maintenance workers tar the roof of Cloud Hall than you will sitting in one of her long-winded classes.

This teacher acts in the start as if she is the fairest and most openminded person at city, then just past halfway she begins changing all the rules, or even having the students make them up which is more chaos and lack of ability on her part. Her lectures are completely unrelated to the quizes/exams so show up if you want to hear her talk about herself in an overly exagerated and self-important manner. She announced to the class that she was "an easy A", "do only whatever work you want, it doesnt matter" but in the last few weeks of term started saying she"reserves A's" and bombed everyone's grades on their papers, no matter how much they met with her to work out any problems. We were all dumfounded and our grades were far lower than anyone expected. She is completely unaccountable as a teacher, throwing her hands in the air making mockery of students inquiries about how she grades to the point of bringing a handful of students to tears on separate occasions. For how important this class is to cal, it seems unbelivable that such an ungounded, pschologically confused, pass-the-buck person should be teaching it, as the content should be what the class is about, not the teacher, and all her personal crisises. Take at your own risk, or better yet, take on-line, for more consistancy, they use the same text, which is great...

One of the best teachers I have been lucky enough to encounter! She was open to students doing final projects that actually related to each person's own educational needs. A great, great learning experience!

She is a nice person but you wont learn a thing. She is selfconscious which is very distracting. Her lectures have nothing to do with the quizes and tests. Big waste of time.