Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Only my first paragraph was about otter's situation. The second (separated from the first by several lines) was on a different, but related, topic, about nutty child-rearing practices (that lead to helpless, easily-offended adults like the ones otter encountered), and wondering how they gained so many adherents around the turn of the millennium.
So now you're assuming that otter has turned "angry and bitter" over the course of her career? Have you considered a career as a fiction writer? I think you owe otter an apology.
I would say that if there's an apology due, it's due from you. After all, I said, "We don't know how her attitude may have actually changed over the years". People do change over time, sometimes drastically.
Status:
"I don't understand. But I don't care, so it works out."
(set 7 days ago)
35,629 posts, read 17,961,729 times
Reputation: 50652
I don't know exactly what's going on with this professor, but you can't have a professor who fails most of the students. Especially students who are otherwise successful in their college classes.
When my kids were in college, and feared they might fail a class, I'd ask "do you believe you're in the top half, grade-wise"? When they said yes, absolutely, I'd say you're not going to fail that class.
Universities can't abide some nutso professor who comes in and fails everyone for the pleasure of doing it. If students are otherwise successful in other classes, and in the top half gradewise of that class, they shouldn't be failed.
I don't know exactly what's going on with this professor, but you can't have a professor who fails most of the students. Especially students who are otherwise successful in their college classes.
When my kids were in college, and feared they might fail a class, I'd ask "do you believe you're in the top half, grade-wise"? When they said yes, absolutely, I'd say you're not going to fail that class.
Universities can't abide some nutso professor who comes in and fails everyone for the pleasure of doing it. If students are otherwise successful in other classes, and in the top half gradewise of that class, they shouldn't be failed.
Nowhere did the article say, he failed most of his students or "everyone". It said 85 students complained out of 350. It also said other Organic Chem faculty protested the decision. It's fair to assume assume that unlike this professor, they have tenure, so they can't be dismissed for failing less than 1/4 of the class, in a course known for its difficulty, and for separating the wheat from the chaff in determining who qualifies to apply to med school. The article also said, that quite a few students wrote letters of support.
For the third time, my "attitude" had NOTHING to do with this; I simply made the corrections electronically.
It's the mere act of being corrected that they can't stand. I was told, in essence, to "lower my standards."
Why you insist on blaming me for this when there's ample evidence of Snowflake Syndrome is beyond me!
Unless you ARE one?
It isn't about you. That's not the point. The point I have been making, repeatedly, is that in all of these cases -- yes, including yours -- we are hearing one side of the story. Are we hearing what those under you actually said? Are we hearing their actual perception?
I think we have a bad system that has a professor do both research and teaching. We should pair up more professors where one does all the teaching and the other does all the research. Usually a professor is much better at one than the other.
I think we have a bad system that has a professor do both research and teaching. We should pair up more professors where one does all the teaching and the other does all the research. Usually a professor is much better at one than the other.
That sounds expensive. Universities cant afford extra faculty. They can't even afford tenure track faculty to the extent they used to, so they hire adjuncts. Those are the ones doing the teaching. Also, universities rely more on grad students to do the teaching, than they used to. They've been forced into that by all the state budget cuts. That was one of the first things UC Berkeley did after Proposition 13 passed, and resulted in a major budget cut to the school. They set up more grad students to teach as many of their entry-level courses as possible.
I don't know exactly what's going on with this professor, but you can't have a professor who fails most of the students. Especially students who are otherwise successful in their college classes.
In engineering and science courses, it is common for certain professors to fail half the class or more by making their exams nearly impossible to pass.
That is why most kids who start out never make it to graduation. They either flunk out or switch to a more suitable major.
It is very Darwinian. Law of the jungle. Military boot camp.
That sounds expensive. Universities cant afford extra faculty. They can't even afford tenure track faculty to the extent they used to, so they hire adjuncts. Those are the ones doing the teaching. Also, universities rely more on grad students to do the teaching, than they used to. They've been forced into that by all the state budget cuts. That was one of the first things UC Berkeley did after Proposition 13 passed, and resulted in a major budget cut to the school. They set up more grad students to teach as many of their entry-level courses as possible.
If they cannot afford to hire faculty who can actually teach, given the tuition that they charge, then the colleges seriously need to rethink their money management. Everybody else is forced to do more with less. Maybe get rid of the "research" professors who are paid 6 figures to do nothing except bully their grad students.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
