Professor fired for being too tough (public school, bachelors, exams, course)

[phetaroi]

Originally Posted by RamenAddict

This is often an argument within any sector for privatization. However, privatization rarely results in the gains that were touted. The thing with public schools, particularly in the US, is that they must take every student within the district and the vast majority must take the standardized tests. Other countries test smaller portions of the population and may not provide free tuition at all grade levels.

Imagine you’re a doctor. You get a group of patients who regularly miss their appointments, are totally non compliant with their medications, make none of the lifestyle changes, and guess what? You are not allowed to discharge them from the practice. That’s what you have in a public school system. To make things worse, you’re still assessed on those patients’ outcomes. In contrast, you have a private doctor who promises great results but discharges patients almost immediately if they don’t comply with treatment recommendations and miss more than one appointment. Who is going to do better in this situation? Obviously the latter, because the non compliant patients are kicked out. You can see some of this type of grading with hospitals, as you have the “general” hospitals that tend to be the indigent hospitals. While they are also the teaching hospitals that provide great care, you may see on USNEws that outcomes are poor because they have a) the frequent flyers who just swing by because they have nowhere else to stay or get medical care, b) have other indigent patients who can’t afford to do follow up, and c) the costs are high because they have to figure out how to pay for Mr. Smith- who comes in for a variety of issues on a weekly basis, and Ms. Jones, an indigent patient with no insurance who had multiple heart surgeries. The message is “the outcomes are bad and treatment is expensive”- of course it is!

Teachers can and do work for private schools. There are usually trade offs. While you may get fewer problem students, you get far more problem parents and the pay is often significantly less than it is a public school. In many areas, the vast majority may also be parochial. I subbed at my K-8 school on occasion and the teachers there also said that they were required to do a lot more training/in-service hours than their public school counterparts. However, the main benefit is that you can typically have your own children go to the school for free.

It's a bit like a particular medical-hospital company that is well known in the U.S. They have great results. But they also pick and choose their clients.

[Ruth4Truth]

Originally Posted by phetaroi

It's a bit like a particular medical-hospital company that is well known in the U.S. They have great results. But they also pick and choose their clients.

There's a well-known medical-hospital company in the US that gets great results? Is this an insurance-based facility, or one that one accepts out-of-pocket payment? If it takes insurance, I, and I imagine a lot of other people, would love to know about it.

[averysgore]

Jeezum crow, the guy is 84 years old. I think letting him go is doing everyone a favor. Can't imagine teaching such a brutal class at that age. Maybe, just maybe a "fun" seminar-type class.

[Ruth4Truth]

Originally Posted by averysgore

Jeezum crow, the guy is 84 years old. I think letting him go is doing everyone a favor. Can't imagine teaching such a brutal class at that age. Maybe, just maybe a "fun" seminar-type class.

One professor at the U of WA kept teaching through her 90's! She only retired just before turning 100! She was very impressive; she would use her business contacts to get her best graduating students jobs. (She taught economics.) And she was active on organization boards right up until she retired. She had all kinds of connections she could tap into for her students. I dropped by her office a few years ago, when she was 95, and still going strong! lol

[phetaroi]

Originally Posted by Ruth4Truth

One professor at the U of WA kept teaching through her 90's! She only retired just before turning 100! She was very impressive; she would use her business contacts to get her best graduating students jobs. (She taught economics.) And she was active on organization boards right up until she retired. She had all kinds of connections she could tap into for her students. I dropped by her office a few years ago, when she was 95, and still going strong! lol

But that is certainly an exception, and I'm not sure what the relevance is here.

I think there should be mandatory retirement ages for all professions. And it sure isn't age 95 or 100.

[JimB8353]

And, the 1970's as well

[phetaroi]

Originally Posted by JimB8353

And, the 1970's as well

I'm not clear what you're responding to.

[Ruth4Truth]

Originally Posted by phetaroi

But that is certainly an exception, and I'm not sure what the relevance is here.

I think there should be mandatory retirement ages for all professions. And it sure isn't age 95 or 100.

Emeriti come out of retirement occasionally to teach. Many people retire just because they want to, not because they're losing competence. And just because someone's 85 doesn't mean they're losing their touch. The fact it, we don't have enough info about the case. His colleagues and many students came forward to speak well of him. For that matter, we don't know if the Organic Chem instructors routinely get complaints from the students who couldn't make the grade in a tough course, but because they have tenure, nothing comes of it. He didn't have tenure, so he got canned.

[phetaroi]

Originally Posted by Ruth4Truth

Emeriti come out of retirement occasionally to teach. Many people retire just because they want to, not because they're losing competence. And just because someone's 85 doesn't mean they're losing their touch. The fact it, we don't have enough info about the case. His colleagues and many students came forward to speak well of him. For that matter, we don't know if the Organic Chem instructors routinely get complaints from the students who couldn't make the grade in a tough course, but because they have tenure, nothing comes of it. He didn't have tenure, so he got canned.

I live in a retirement community. Some of us are more active than others. But none of us above the age of 70 should still be in any high-power job. We aren't what we were. That doesn't mean we can't contribute in other ways, but we aren't what we were.

[mike1003]

Originally Posted by Ruth4Truth

It's a good thing none of us had to take organic chemistry!

I did!


I took organic and pharmaceutical organic. Both courses were hard as hell and taught by no nonsense professors.


I aced both (after working my ass off and studying like hell) and am a better person for my efforts


Today's snowflakes are just older crybabies!


The future is bleak!