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From: cheryl@batcomputer.TN.CORNELL.EDU (cheryl)
Newsgroups: soc.college,talk.rumors
Subject: Re: Accuracy in Academia
Message-ID: <1083@batcomputer.TN.CORNELL.EDU>
Date: Tue, 23-Sep-86 18:57:31 EDT
Article-I.D.: batcompu.1083
Posted: Tue Sep 23 18:57:31 1986
Date-Received: Thu, 25-Sep-86 03:58:31 EDT
References: <15485@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU> <15492@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU> <652@midas.UUCP> <171@mn-at1.UUCP> <668@midas.UUCP>
Reply-To: cheryl@batcomputer.UUCP (cheryl)
Distribution: na
Organization: Theory Center, Cornell University, Ithaca NY
Lines: 57

In article <668@midas.UUCP> jeffw@midas.UUCP (Jeff Winslow) writes:
>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.

Sounds to me like the TA was tired of bored students who never really
bothered to think about the material, but rather preferred to cram
for exams with Monarch notes.  Hence the request for the material
found in the Monarch notes.  Sort of like High School.  

And why is it "disinformation" to ask students to think for themselves,
to invite them to go to whatever sources they like and make whatever
case they choose on the given topics?  They could come to the conclusion
that the Marxist state is even more repressive than the Catholic Church,
or that modern land practices in Guatemala and Hondouras are very unlike
the European serfdom.  

>I'm sure now that it was a joke.
>						Jeff Winslow