Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.3 (USS@Tek, v1.1) based on 4.3bsd-beta 6/6/85; site midas.UUCP
Path: utzoo!decvax!tektronix!teklds!midas!jeffw
From: jeffw@midas.UUCP (Jeff Winslow)
Newsgroups: net.college,talk.rumors
Subject: Re: Accuracy in Academia
Message-ID: <668@midas.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 15-Sep-86 11:32:39 EDT
Article-I.D.: midas.668
Posted: Mon Sep 15 11:32:39 1986
Date-Received: Wed, 17-Sep-86 13:48:40 EDT
References: <15485@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU> <15492@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU> <652@midas.UUCP> <171@mn-at1.UUCP>
Reply-To: jeffw@midas.UUCP (Jeff Winslow)
Distribution: na
Organization: Tektronix, Inc., Beaverton, OR.
Lines: 45

In article <171@mn-at1.UUCP> alan@mn-at1.UUCP (Alan Klietz) writes:
>In article <652@midas.UUCP>, jeffw@midas.UUCP (Jeff Winslow) writes:
>> In article <2066@sdcsvax.UUCP> cs195@sdcsvax.UUCP (EECS 195) writes:
>> 
>> >    The AIA is worth sponsoring.  It may appear to single out 
>> >    liberal/leftist teachers, but this is not because of their
>> >    political leaning, rather, it is because they are the major 
>> >    source of disinformation on campus.  At least on my campus.
>> 
>> This is a joke, right? 
>
>I took a survey course in European History.  The first quarter
>covered the end of the Middle Ages through the Renaissance.
>
>My TA gave our section the following class assignments,
>
>	o Discuss the relationship between European serfdom and
>	  modern rural land practices in Guatemala and Honduras.
>
>	o Identify some of the immediate and underlying causes of
>	  the rise of the Bourgeoisie in the 13th-16th centuries
>	  and their effects on the working class.
>
>	o Compare the role of the Church in the lives of individuals
>	  in the 13th-16th centuries with the role of the state in
>	  a Marxist society.
>
>These were the only assignments given by the TA during the quarter.
>Approximately 30% of class time was spent discussing the events in
>Nicaragua.  We did not cover Da Vinci, the Hapsburgs, New World Explo-
>ration, Rise of Spain, the Protestant Reformation, or anything else.

So? I don't see any inaccuracy or disinformation there. Or are you now
going to complain about teachers who don't present the subject matter you
expect as well? Sounds to me like the TA, having encountered any number of
classes of bored students, merely tried to liven things up by relating events
in that period to events in this. And, given the capacity of the net to
generate high volume tangential discussions like this one, it doesn't 
surprise me in the least that 30% of class time ("class" being what the
TA taught, which was half or less than the total with the lecture, right?)
was spent discussing as controversial a modern issue as Nicaragua.

I'm sure now that it was a joke.

						Jeff Winslow