A sample of anonymous student comments on SOC 372, Good and Evil in Social Relations, taught by Kenneth Westhues in Fall 2008, at the University of Waterloo

There is a box for "good" to evaluate the professor, but none that reads "evil." Ha Ha. Just kidding.

Westhues is simply one of the finest educators I have encountered in my entire academic career. I am wiser having taken his courses, and I am wiser having met him. He brings joy to the study of human relations, and he presents questions and ideas as the complex matters they are.

This coure is unlike any other -- in a good way. Thank you! I took a lot from this course. Usually I hate doing presentations but this one was good. The last book seemed a bit rushed, maybe because it was a little more difficult than the others.

There should have been more lecture from the professor. I feel he could have added much more insight to the course instead of so many presentations.

Fascinating readings, quite a heavy load in terms of work. Excellent course overall.

Presentations were useful; rich learning experience to be involved with others for academic purposes. Only concern was the amount of readings, a bit heavy.

The entire working setup was wonderful. It let us showcase our talents as we were not limited to one term paper. Weakness was not having enough class time to fully talk out all the points we bring up in class. Best Soc class ever.

I really enjoyed the prof's teaching style and the many examples he used throughout the course. Probably one of the most interesting courses I have ever taken.

Instructor is very engaged with students, very enthusiastic about the course. Lots of hands-on work. Excellent, I learned a lot.

I would have enjoyed more time alotted to lecturing by Mr. Westhues.

Excellent reading list and an engaging presentation.

Great in every way, too short, good, very fun.

Class discussions were always very interesting. I wish more focus was placed on the course material. It felt like it was just there but not much attention was placed on it. Excellent and very passionate prof. Learned a lot.

Best course I've taken in four years of post-secondary.

Too much ambiguity. Teacher is very nice. Class presentations were hard to follow and terribly boring. I learned nothing from them. Assigned readings were not sociological.

I thoroughly enjoyed it. I would take it again if I could.

A little more structure in lectures would be nice. Instructor captures student interest, knows a lot about topic, is passionate, truly tries to listen to what students have to say.

Westhues is a great prof who cares about us. Some presentations were boring.

One of the best professors I have had teach me at Waterloo. Doesn't just read a PowerPoint slide like most. Actually cares about material and about students. If you miss class, you are somewhat screwed.

Prof is an excellent teacher and I would gladly take another course taught by him. The book by Becker was very contrary and difficult to understand and apply. A great course, everyone should take it.

Great! Wide range of material and examples. Some reading material irrelevant.

Readings were interesting. I did not like the word limits on the test. I learned some things, but I did not enjoy this class very much in comparison to the other classes I am taking this term.

It's hard to have a word limit on tests. I felt I spent more time counting than actually focusing on what I was writing. I felt I couldn't always write the best answer I could with a word limit.

A lot of amazing communication, and new information to be learned. Excellent, would recommend it.

Every time Mr. Westhues began telling us a story related to class, he never was able to complete it. This course needs a longer class time. Can't wait to take Mr. Westhues' other courses. Very interesting!

Lovely. Very refreshing. No regrets. It should be 1.5 hours long. We would get so into the lecture, discussing heart-pulling topics and lessons, and we would suddenly be cut off by the time. A lot of reading. I felt the pressure to finish a whole book in one week, but the readings were valuable, so it's not too bad.

Excellent, good readings and assignments.

The professor was great, wanted to hear our opinions. Sometimes I felt overwhelmed by the readings, but overall they were great.

I wouldn't mind if the class was longer. Personality of Kenneth Westhues really adds to it.

Excellent. I am so glad I was able to take it. I talk about what we learned frequently.

A bit more philosophical than anticipated (not really a bad thing).

This course was a very long dialogue. Professor Westhues teaches the way others preach, in that he incorporates everything we have come to learn into his mannerisms and his style of teaching, which allows everyone to be on the same level. In my opinion, this is the best grounds for education. Doesn't get better than this.