Very mean teacher

I thought it would be good to ask for the opinion of people here about this issue, because most of the people I can ask over here would probably give me the same advice and I'd like to see what persons with different points of view have to share on the subject. (Since my native language ain't English, I'm sorry if I make any mistakes)

I'm studying 3° semester of Architecture as of now, and the semester will end in about 5 or 6 weeks. I've always been a good student and recently received a prize for ranking as 7th in the top 10 students of all the Faculty of Architecture. However, as much as I spend time studying, researching and designing I seem to be fated to fail the course of Design III.

This may sound like a childish excuse, but the teacher does in fact hate me and I realized way too late when I couldn't change my section of the course anymore. The reason, as I later found out, it's because of my uncle: My uncle is the mayor of the city and he does an outstanding job at it, yet he seems to have declined the work of my teacher many times in favor of that of other architects. Least than a month ago, my uncle accepted at last two projects of my teacher, but then at the last moment declined some statues my teacher had designed for the outside part of one of those buildings, which greatly fueled my teacher's anger.

Now, since a loudmouth classmate told the guy I was the mayor's nephew the guy has been been bent on making my life a living hell. I spent every single day working late at night, and almost always spend the weekend working like a slave at the design table, and I feel and have been told that my projects are amongst the better of my class, yet the guy always looks at my work in a denigrative manner and treats me with greatly visible disgust, sometimes he even tears apart my plans and once he tossed a model I had made.

He always says something along the lines of "This doesn't work at all" or "What are you doing here? You should study psychology or something, only a crazy person could make this" or "Start from zero again, take this off my sight", then I change what he wanted and at the very last presentation of the project he says "Why did you do this? It was perfect at the beginning". I'm not kidding, he's very very rude towards my person, and I can't complain with any other teacher because that would equal not having any hope of finishing my studies.

That bastard has me frustrated beyond words, as of lately every time I attend his class I end up being depressed for two days... which is when I have to see him again.

I cannot ask my uncle to do something against the ill mannered bitch because first of all it would be somewhat immoral and unethical of my person, not to mention a clear abuse of power, second, despite my uncle even being my godfather, I don't talk to him, or even see other members of my family that frequently (At most one or twice in a year I do see him), so he would ignore me. Jeez, the guy doesn't even call me in my birthday.

My family also exerts great pressure on my person, my father having 3 university titles and my mom also having an impressive academic background, thus, they wouldn't understand it if I failed the course, they think I'm some genius that can stay in the top 10 and pass all courses of the semester with high grades easily ._. I have even been told that if I happened to fail a subject I'd have to work (I dunno in which free time) to pay for my studies, because they wouldn't continue paying for them. I tried to explain my situation to them and they just said "You can still pass it, right? Then do it"

At this rate I'll probably fail Design III due to that hating, resented bastard, so I'm really at a lost of what to do. I'm starting to believe that Architecture wasn't really my calling and started to consider dropping out. I do work hard, and I really study to the point of sleeping just 3 hours everyday, yet this guy seems to ask me for things which need a deep knowledge of technical matters I won't even see until 6° or 7° semester.

I wish I knew what to do in this situation, but everything is so complicated that I don't see any way around it besides dropping out, which would be at any rate something I don't want. Thus, I wanted to hear other persons' opinion on the subject, most of my friends are too lightheaded to probably process all that and say something besides "That guy's a bitch" xD

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Students' Union? No, unfortunately such a thing doesn't exist there.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

There are indeed several persons with a higher rank in the architecture department than him, but I have already spoken to them and they all tell me to speak with the head of the faculty. The time that I did so she told me she'd talk with him, but then I told her to not do so out of fear (You see, several persons have filed complaints against the teacher though his teaching career at the university, and most of the time if the guy found out who did it he'd even go as far as changing the grades of those persons so they wouldn't pass his subject. Several persons from higher semesters have told me of such happenings that went ignored by the head of architecture, so it must be true, and making things harder for myself doesn't sound so appealing @_@;; ). At least it seems the bastard will be fired after this semester, since he's not only mean, but he misses classes frequently or leaves way too early having the nerve to use excuses such as "I have a tennis match to attend to".

Tearing apart projects, though rare, isn't something unseen, but it only happens when the projects are absolutely terrible. That "I break/draw on/cut/toss it and make you change it to tell you it was great in the beginning" routine is something that a few indecisive teachers do sometimes, but it's most often seen in first semester only in the very first projects, when teachers get frustrated with their new students.

That panel thing is out of the question: Not only I wouldn't be able to get any testimonials due to what I explained above, but teachers over there are "always right". The other teachers would defend him no matter what, it's the same anywhere, like a mafia. Besides, probably who would be summoned would be the two coordinators of the first semesters (Which happen to be good friends with my teacher) and another random teacher.

Of course, I would never ask for an automatic A, but changing sections is kinda futile when about 5 weeks are left. Maybe if I were studying engineering or administration that would be ok, but since evaluation in art-oriented careers is highly subjective, chances are I wouldn't have time to adjust to the new teacher way to evaluate AND finish the last project. Besides, that's against the rules of the university, such changes can only be done in the first week of each semester.

Jazz suggestion seems nice: using my uncle influence as a last resort, thing is he couldn't do much: The construction of the buildings my teacher designed are already scheduled to begin in the next months, starting with the demolition of a few things that occupy the terrains; and my uncle would also have to convince the other interested parties of the project to call it off. He has a great sense of duty and wouldn't do something that would affect the city negatively like calling off the projects, even if family was involved in that somehow. Maybe he could annoy the bitch and make him do drastic changes very frequently to his work over and over again, but in the end my teacher would end up building something and earning big money, so I doubt he minds. Well, that would be nice for a revenge scenario in case I failed, but that's not what I hope for xD

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Hmmm, I like Ozma's suggestion. If I'm prolly going to fail at last I won't show him how much he affects me. I've already treated him hypocritically in the past and he always makes this "Wtf?!" face xD It's funny.

RacinReaver: I will take your advice in mind, having my project evaluated by another teacher before showing it to "His Insolence" (Thats one nickname we use to refer to him between students) could be a way to at keep progressing and receive constructive criticism of my work... I already have some teachers in mind, so I'll just ask em' if they can do it in their time between classes or something.

Arch-Slayer: Though I could probably do that, and surely they'd help if things came down to going to the department head, most people that suffered said abuse would probably not move an inch to help me, because they'd probably fear some kind of revenge not from the troublesome teacher himself anymore (Since he's probably getting kicked out after this semester), but from his close friends in the teachers' group.
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Anyway, thanks for helping out, I'll try to put all your advice to use and see what happens. I'll keep you updated :P

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