Unfortunately teachers like this exist in every school. It's an unfortunate byproduct of the current system. I was in your position about a decade ago, and I have one solution. Pick your battles. I understand you are paying (cash/grants/loans/scholarships) for an education, but getting on the bad side of a department head isn't the way to start a college career. If you know the content, I would move on.
I also understand the urge to make things right, even if it's for the benefit of others. When the CS sub-culture of meritocracy, is thrown against the educational systems bureaucracy, things clash. While this doesn't excuse this specific teacher I just wanted to reiterate the point to pick your battles.
If your goal is to get a degree, then abide by the rules of the game.
If your goal is to learn, then I'd suggest self-study while in school and passing that study off as "projects".
If you can't stand the fact that this teacher is there and you have an overwhelming urge to become an activist, then think about what you're doing very thoroughly. If you really do want to make it better for others don't be held to the mindset "oh, this is broke because the teachers sucks, so the fix is to get a new teacher". I'd suggest being a little bit more cordial and join the student council, ACM, or whatever organization. Don't, repeat, don't be on the wrong side of a "teachers lounge conference".
There is some merit to this line of thinking, but as one who, in 8th grade, left an anonymous note for my life science teacher to let him know that his classes were excruciatingly boring and his lecture style could benefit from some less traditional approaches, and who, in 9th, cited specific negative examples of her English professor's own behavior in the research paper that was worth 40 percent of our grade for the semester, I can well understand the desire to speak up. So I suggest, if you must, try to be diplomatic in the approach, or at least have solid backing for your stance that is documented.
Perhaps a
careful conversation directly with the professor with an offering of services to help improve or focus the curriculum as an aide may be more productive and less adversarial? (This is not the best approach if you don't feel that you have the face to face finesse to pull it off without earning an F in the course for pissing off the teacher, but should it result in that, you at least have some grounds for dispute since you can easily prove better knowledge of the subject matter than she.)
Since it is not certain what circumstances have put the instructor there, perhaps it might be a little unfair to start by going over her head, though. For all you know this was a last minute substitution of teachers when something befell the one who was supposed to be there. i find it surprising that a teacher who has "packets" to hand out doesn't know the material if they put in the effort of making packets to begin with, but if the packets are from some other source, that could also be very telling as far as whether or not the instructor was even originally intended for that class.
There are some critical questions about circumstance that would also influence how I might proceed as well. For starters, what sort of institution is it? Public or private? That can really dictate an entirely different best choice of action depending upon which it is, as well as how many students attend the school and the class itself.
FYI- the outcome of my situations: The note I left was not as anonymous as i had intended since the next day I was asked to stay after class by the instructor who apparently had figured it out. But rather than in trouble, I got to share the techniques of some of my past excellent instructors with a teacher who was really trying to improve his ability to get through to us. He came up with a painfully dry "cell mitosis game" but at least he tried and was better than what the rest of the year could have been like if I'd left it alone. (His first semester at our school was unfortunately his last, but at least he made it past Parents night to the end of the semester long class.)
The English paper was an impulse fueled by my own frustration with a teacher I hated and who I felt hated me - I dropped my original topic in favor of examining the direct relationship between teacher's expectations and student performance just two days before the rough draft was due. It was well written and argued, but still a pretty decent risk to put the prof in the middle of it all so unmistakeably. I let my nerdiest friend read it before handing it in and she very carefully said, "Well... You'll either get an 'A' on this... or an 'F'." And, once again, I was asked to stick around when class let out the day those came back to us.
Turns out the guy, before becoming head of our upper school English dept., had previously been a professor at Carnegie Mellon or the like. Our class was his first, and very rocky, exposure to junior high. (My mom, even after 35 of teaching in a Los Angeles public school district swore she would never touch a junior high class with a ten-foot pole if her life depended on it.) He simply didn't know how to handle our level of maturity, or rather, lack thereof. Though he had established himself as an excellent and passionate instructor at the upper grade levels, he was lost and nearly driven mad by a small group of 14 year old girls.
He actually thanked me for having the courage to write that paper - and the balls to hand it in. He admitted that my paper stung him, said he actually winced at recognizing himself in it and actually apologized to me personally and even tried to make amends with the class. I got to have him again in upper school, and to this day I think of him as one of my favorite and best instructors and someone who had the greatest hand in developing my writing. And, of course, I got an 'A' on the paper and in the class. [I don't think, though, that he ever took on another 9th grade English class... =)]
I should reiterate that these happy outcomes were both within the same school that had our chem teacher replaced within two days of the Parents meeting, so a small expensive institution is likely the most receptive to any complaints coming from the student body, while a larger university may have a lot more red tape or even bigger concerns than the quality of instruction of such an entry level course. It is good advice, not only to pick your battles, but if you pick this one, to plan it carefully so as to avoid any unnecessary casualties on either side. Remember that teachers, even the incompetent ones, are still people first with feelings and, more often than not, good intentions.
