Public Flogging or Intellectual Exercise?

I have been warned many times before that Sciences Po employs what one might be tempted to call a 'Socratic' method of teaching. Apparently this method involves professors tearing students down and then seeing them rise from the ashes and achieve intellectual brilliance. I'm not so sure I like this method, as I experienced it firsthand this morning. We had our first round of oral presentations in my methodology class today, and every presentation ended (my own included) with the professor inviting the class to tell the presenter what he or she did poorly, and then the professor systematically listing off all of the errors that the presenter had made. There's not a whole lot of stock placed in positive reinforcement, so I'm pretty sure that there were a number of wounded egos that walked out of the classroom. It's not clear if these presentations are meant to be an intellectual exercise or a public flogging session...oh well, I suppose that we can all look forward to the day that we rise from the ashes, and we'll be intellectual warriors at the end.

Elsewhere, la vie continues to be très belle, although it would be nice if the laptop repairman would actually repair my laptop rather than telling me ''il y a un tout petit problème...''.