Shiny Doom Forum

[Jastermereel]

http://www.alligator.org/pt2/050323freedom.php
stupid f'ing bastards.

Ignorance is bliss and, with a laywer, can be profitable too.

[Trool]

ugh this really pisses me off. The whole point of a university education is that the students are no longer kids to be protected and should take care of themselves. If you don't like what the proff is teaching you address the school and deal with this internaly....that does work, we as the students at drexel were able to get at least one prof dismissed cause he had no clue what he was doing. Sending this thing to the corts is the worst idea possible.

His example of what is suiable is also laughable:

[Mogri]

Um... yeah... that's a bit ludicrous.

One of the best ways of learning is for people to challenge the ideas and things you've taken for granted and never tried to justify. Professors are not meant to be edited/approved text books, they are meant to present ideas in unique ways and challenge students.

The things that people are allowed to sue for in this country is outrageous; not only is this bad on that front, but it's another way for the law to control the education system.

I would like to have faith that the first time this shows up in court it is dismissed, but our track record for upholding idiocy is quite disturbing.

[Katrina]

Sometimes talknig to professors helps and sometimes it doesn't. I had an experience with one professor who would go on long irrelvant tirades about what his politcal views and dislike of the church. Okay, if this is a political class or a religon class, fine, let's talk. But it was an education class. Sometimes it would be an hour before he said anything relating to education. I tried to talk to him that his comments were innappropriate (and frankly irrelevant) but the most I got out of it was whenever he thought he would say something offensive, he would prelude it with "I don't mean to insult anybody, but..."

However...
Unless the professor is dishing out some serious verbal abuse or opening trying to deface a student on campus, it can't really be compensated for. Yeah, my professor pissed me off, and I warned every student I met not to take him, but I shouldn't be able to sue him for it. If he had actually threated me, that would be another story. But he was just a jerk and now I have a prime example of how not to treat my students. With any luck, he'll rack up enough complaints to either change his attitude or get a new job.

As far as creation vs. evolution goes, college students have to expect they're going to run up against controversy. I do not think professors have the right to claim creationism as false in the classroom setting. It should either be agknowledged as a point of view or not discussed. To me, there needs to be a certain level of acceptance that some people believe this is how it happened, and others do not. Students should not be mocked just because they disagree with the professor. But this goes true for any classroom setting.
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[Jastermereel]

[Katrina]

[Jastermereel]

Lets say, hypothetically, that this student wasn't Christian and was instead......lets see...how about a flat earther? They are rare but they do exist. If the student raises the issue, lets say in an astronomy or geology class, should the teacher express that its a valid point of view saying something like, "I personally feel that the earth is round. Thats is how I was raised and told by my parents and teachers. Others, however feel that it is flat. I don't agree but there is certainly nothing wrong with that." Now, despite the absurd nature of even the begining of it (I feel that the earth is round) if the student insists on using their belief system as fact in their work, what should the teacher do? Should someone become an astrophysisist without even that basic understanding of the way things work?

[Katrina]

I do not see how these two scenarios are related. We have conrete proof the world is round. We've gone up into space and seen it. We've also gone around the world, which means it has to be a circle. We do not have any conrete proof however that an intellgient creator either exists or does not exist. Therefore, however right we think we are. we still owe some respect to people who think the earth came about in a different way. Isn't this what we call tolerance that we seem so keen on pushing nowadays?

If I happened to have a student such as you were describing who was very insistant on their beliefs, I would simply end it at, "For the sake of this class, we are going to assume that the world is round."
_________________
Check it out! I finally remembered my login for this account. I can do crazy things like put text in my signature and change my avatar so it doesn't say NaNoWriMo 2005.

[Jastermereel]

[Katrina]