College Can Feel Like Middle School All Over

[Winchester]

[quote name='homeschoolmom' post='1764856' date='Jan 28 2009, 05:04 PM']Could you speak to her after class about this? If it is really outside of the scope of the class, you may remind her that you are there for Food and Nutrition (or whatever you said the class was). Is there a syllabus? Maybe talk to the dean of the department?

When I was a sophomore in college, I was in an American Government class and the teacher was obviously anti-Christian. She was from Louisiana (we were in Wisconsin) and she often related stories of the evil Baptists she'd encountered in her life and who influenced then-current politics (Baptist was her word for Christian, I guess... always Baptists). I finally talked to her after class and told her that I was offended and asked her to stop. She did. If she hadn't, I would have gone to the dean of the Poli Sci department.[/quote]
Yeah, but things have changed since the Old West times...

[Groo the Wanderer]

At work , my hispanic buds refer to him as the Obamallama...kinda catchy eh?

[Resurrexi]

I liked middle school.

[homeschoolmom]

[quote name='Winchester' post='1764904' date='Jan 28 2009, 07:02 PM']Yeah, but things have changed since the Old West times...[/quote]

[Vincent Vega]

I have two Catholic teachers.
One is a middle-aged Filipino with his Doctorate in Chemistry. He's a third degree night and he and his college aged son plan to get their fourth this summer. He keeps his opinions to himself (as it should be - it's a chemistry class afterall) but he has made subtle jokes about(against) Obama in the past.
The other is an older, ex-Bay Stater hippie. One of the first things she told us were there were only two things she would not debate - her religion and her politics. Now that we know she's "catholic" and an Obama supporter, the statement makes perfect and sobering sense. Bishop Galleone made it mandatory for all priests in the diocese to address the issue of voting pro-life before November rolled around. Now we see why she doesn't like being confronted on the two matters she mentioned - obviously because she's heard the whole "You can't be pro-choice and Catholic" mantra a couple of times. It upsets me too, because she misrepresents what being Catholic means to maybe 200 kids every year, and she is the kind who refuses to listen to anything against what she pictures Obama to be. It's a shame too, cause she really is a nice lady, and a decent teacher.
It's hard to try to admonish someone in a position of power over you.

[Luigi]

Since the prof has the power of the grade, and the common American intellectual idiot sees no moral conflict in flunking students who disagree with their political stances (in the one forum that is supposed to respect open dialogue and debate), I wouldn't even bother talking to her about it. She won't hear you. She'll jot a note in her gradebook next to your name - "Flunk this monkey.!"

You could complain to the dept. chair or the dean, but they would probably just pass the complaint along to the prof and tell her to be more careful, which she won't do, and her superiors would probably pass your anme aong to her as well - unless you specifically ask them not to.

There's usually a rate-the-prof deal at the end of the semester - REAM HER OUT! Grade her hard - honestly, but hard. If you just pencil in the lowest rating on every question, they'll disregard you altogether, but if you critique honestly, it'll show up in her ratings.

There are also websites - FREE - where you can rate profs. Google 'em up, and let her have it. You can be as honest as you want on these sites, too, since they're not controlled by the colleges.

[Hassan]

I had a professor who, when this one kid claimed intentional mental states were necessairly qualitative flipped out. He wasn't really angry or anything but he was just really passionate about philosophy of mind.

[Hassan]

[quote name='Luigi' post='1765421' date='Jan 29 2009, 02:07 AM']Since the prof has the power of the grade, and the common American intellectual idiot sees no moral conflict in flunking students who disagree with their political stances (in the one forum that is supposed to respect open dialogue and debate), I wouldn't even bother talking to her about it. She won't hear you. She'll jot a note in her gradebook next to your name - "Flunk this monkey.!"[/quote]


No offense because I'm sure it does happen, but I've found that many individuals "persecuted" for their political beliefs either did not understand the subject, did poorly, and want to excuse their poor grade, or simply said something stupid. I have heard of professors who will fail students because of their political beliefs but I have never actually had one. If a professor really did fail a student for that they should be reported.

I knew a guy, whom I am friends with, who complained that a professor just didn't like him. He has studied with a group, and showed them his poor test grade and they all agreed that he should have gotten higher. I had a solid A in the class so I asked to check his test. Turns out he just really didn't understand the material, it was evident to anyone who did grasp it when they looked at his answers that he didn't, and the professor was actually fond of him.

[tinytherese]

[quote name='Hassan' post='1765439' date='Jan 29 2009, 01:19 AM']No offense because I'm sure it does happen, but I've found that many individuals "persecuted" for their political beliefs either did not understand the subject, did poorly, and want to excuse their poor grade, or simply said something stupid. I have heard of professors who will fail students because of their political beliefs but I have never actually had one. If a professor really did fail a student for that they should be reported.

I knew a guy, whom I am friends with, who complained that a professor just didn't like him. He has studied with a group, and showed them his poor test grade and they all agreed that he should have gotten higher. I had a solid A in the class so I asked to check his test. Turns out he just really didn't understand the material, it was evident to anyone who did grasp it when they looked at his answers that he didn't, and the professor was actually fond of him.[/quote]

True, that does happen. I had a history teacher in high school who said that he didn't care if we disagreed with him, just as long as we had reasons why and defended what our opinions were to the best of our abilities in an intelligent manner.

[ilovechrist]

i wouldn't dub this "middle school" necessarily, simply because this train of thought is seen EVERYWHERE. there are elementary school teachers who are being accused of adamantly proclaiming Obama's praises in class (and of course, no retribution was found necessary), as well as full fledged adults in the media who have nothing else better to do. personally, picking your nose is likely to be more productive than attempting to glorify a "plan" that one man in one office of power could never execute in 4 years.

[eagle_eye222001]

I can't help but think that in 4 years, we will see what many have deemed the messiah to turn into another Jimmy Carter.

When we see that though, I also realize many will still be caught up with ONE and defend him to their dying day.

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[lost_in_this_world]

well someone else is already speaking to the dean but of course doing nothing. i truly just think that she needs some more boundaries.

did i mention i have her next trimester for psychology too??

and today she didnt even show up. i hope nothing happened to her though because she didnt email any of us and there wasnt even anybody to cover her class.

i woke up at 6:30 am for nothing yup

[Nihil Obstat]

[quote name='lost_in_this_world' post='1766126' date='Jan 29 2009, 07:18 PM']well someone else is already speaking to the dean but of course doing nothing. i truly just think that she needs some more boundaries.

did i mention i have her next [b]trimester[/b] for psychology too??

and today she didnt even show up. i hope nothing happened to her though because she didnt email any of us and there wasnt even anybody to cover her class.

i woke up at 6:30 am for nothing yup[/quote]
Did you say that on purpose?

[CatherineM]

The last time I complained to a department head about a teacher it ended badly. She was clearly unqualified to teach the class. I've had some teachers who I wondered about, like the organic chemistry lab instructor who spoke no English, but he was probably qualified at least on paper. This instructor wasn't even qualified on paper to teach a college level class. She didn't have a college degree. She also didn't have a clue. I wouldn't have minded about her lack of credentials if she had actually known the subject. She had us teaching each other .

I went to the department head. I only found out later the instructor got the job because she was the department head's best friend. I never received another decent grade in that department.

[cmotherofpirl]

My calc teacher came to every class high. He didn't teach, we didn't learn, but he gave everybody a passing grade, so we didn't care. Still don't know what a function is...