Should I drop my art class?

Answered

I’m a current junior who’s taking a studio one 3D art class to fulfill my fine arts credits for graduation. However, there is one huge issue; my teacher sucks.

This is what happened:

We were assigned a project where we had to create a sculpture out of paper cups and plates (lame, I know). We couldn't use any tape/glue and we had to cut slits into the materials in order to make them stick together. The sculpture also had to be at least a 12 inches tall. When we were done, we were supposed to store them on the shelf horizontally - which didn’t make sense to me because it would fall apart if it was placed horizontally since it’s literally made out of paper. Maybe I should have spoke up about it, but I thought the teacher would at least handle the sculptures with care so I didn't worry about it too much.

I began to encounter some issues when I got my grade back; a big fat C. I spoke to some of my other classmates, and they all received similar or worse grades. I was really upset by this as I had spent a lot of time and effort on the project. As I suspected would happen, literally ALL of the sculptures fell apart. Mind you, they were all fine before they were graded. I really wish I could attach an image because when our projects were returned to us, they quite literally looked like a huge pile of garbage. I spoke to some of my classmates who had the same teacher first semester, and they said that she was an “extremely harsh grader and only grades based on talent.” They agreed with me that the situation was unfair.

The incredibly complex rubric was the first thing that really raised red flags about this class. I thought this was weird as this is literally the lowest level art class. If this had been AP art or studio three, I would understand, but I thought a rubric this lengthy and detailed was a bit excessive for a studio one class. Again, I wish I could attach an image of it so you could see how ridiculous it was. When I asked my friend, who is currently in AP art, if she had ever gotten a rubric as detailed as this one in when she was in studio one (but for 2D art), she said that she had not.

I want to know if I should drop this class. I'm extremely worried that my GPA will suffer as a result of this class. I sincerely don't want a meager beginner art class to destroy my 4.0. I was planning on moving to 2D art or switching to a different 3D art teacher. We're only a week into the semester, so I want to make a decision quick before it's too late. Any thoughts?