Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!decvax!tektronix!hplabs!qantel!lll-lcc!lll-crg!seismo!caip!meccts!mvs From: mvs@meccts.UUCP (Michael V. Stein) Newsgroups: soc.college,talk.rumors Subject: Re: Accuracy in Academia Message-ID: <525@meccts.UUCP> Date: Thu, 18-Sep-86 21:56:07 EDT Article-I.D.: meccts.525 Posted: Thu Sep 18 21:56:07 1986 Date-Received: Sun, 21-Sep-86 17:00:42 EDT References: <15485@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU> <15492@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU> <652@midas.UUCP> <171@mn-at1.UUCP> <668@midas.UUCP> Reply-To: mvs@meccts.UUCP (Michael V. Stein) Distribution: na Organization: MECC Technical Services, St. Paul, Mn Lines: 84 In article <668@midas.UUCP> jeffw@midas.UUCP (Jeff Winslow) writes: >>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? Excellent point! It is indeed a sick idea that a course catalog should represent the content of a college course. There is no reason at all that the person paying for the class should be told the contents of the course. Such an outlandish idea would require the bizarre assumption that the student is a responsible rational being who knows what he would like to study. Clearly, this is silly and noone would even try to defend such a ludicrus proposition! In an ideal world they wouldn't even bother printing course descriptions - instead an advisor (with only the best interests of the student at heart) could select all of the student's classes. Of course, in our imperfect world we still have to have course descriptions and the student has a limited choice about what to take... Fortunately, there are some teachers willing to forego the arbitrary, constraining course description and are willing to spend the class time preaching on unrelated material. I feel I really get to know a teacher better by him lecturing me on his beliefs about the economy, radiation, defense strategy, foreign policy, etc. There are even some teachers willing to go the extra mile and let their own opinions on these unrelated topics influence the classwork and the grades of the students. This appears to be what happened to Alan. To make it even more enjoyable, many of the most opinionated professors are also not tainted with any expertise in the derivative subjects they preach at their students. Thus they are able to give a fresh personal perspective on the material to the students Sadly, not everyone teaching today has such high standards. Many times I have taken classes from people who teach the material as defined in the course catalog. All you get from these types is a balanced look at the entire subject material. Often during the entire length of such classes, I never once heard the professor's personal opinions on the environmental effects of nuclear weapons, the biological effects of ionizing radiation or even the professor's personal political beliefs. Instead these second-class profs only deal with the subject material and provided a fair in-depth look at the material as described by the catalog description of the course. There you are paying 20 - 40 dollars per class hour and you don't get the opportunity to hear any of the professor's personal biases or intutitions on any and all endeavors of the human race. Kind of makes it all seem like a waste of time... >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. Absolutely. Marxist predictions about the collapse of capitalism etc, have been found to be so incredibly accurate that Marxist class analysis is truely the only methodology useable for the study of history. Any historian will tell you that no one has ever discovered any other tools in the last few centurys. In a general, introductory course Marxist class analysis is, of course, the only tool that should be used. >...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. Absolutely true. Certainly a class about history 700 years ago involving only the culture on the European continent should spend at least 1/3 of the time discussing a small South American communist regime of the twentieth century. -- Michael V. Stein Minnesota Educational Computing Corporation - Technical Services UUCP ihnp4!dicome!meccts!mvs