Xref: utzoo comp.edu:1524 sci.math:5073 sci.physics:5110 Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!seismo!sundc!pitstop!sun!decwrl!labrea!rutgers!njin!princeton!phoenix!dykimber From: dykimber@phoenix.Princeton.EDU (Daniel Yaron Kimberg) Newsgroups: comp.edu,sci.math,sci.physics Subject: Re: Student and Course Integrity Message-ID: <4813@phoenix.Princeton.EDU> Date: 10 Dec 88 04:44:06 GMT References: <1131@osupyr.mast.ohio-state.edu> <1887@sun.soe.clarkson.edu> <42@microsoft.UUCP> Reply-To: dykimber@phoenix.Princeton.EDU (Daniel Yaron Kimberg) Organization: Princeton University, NJ Lines: 27 In article <42@microsoft.UUCP> w-colinp@microsoft.UUCP (Colin Plumb) writes: >This sounds not like the prof saying "don't bother me", but rather like an >ultimatum: you can learn something, or you can learn nothing. If you really >want to learn nothing, just get the credit, I'll oblige you right now. >Otherwise, I assume you want to learn something. > >How many people signed that list? I bet most felt pretty uncomfortable >about it. (A psych professor should be good at that!) Well there's at least one degenerate solution to that problem that I can see, which is the reason I would instantly sign my name to the list and leave the room with no guilt whatsoever (unless I thought the material were extremely interesting, which wouldn't be the case for an intro social psych class). The solution I have in mind would be to sign the list, and spend the time I would otherwise have spent on the class reading, probably some of the same literature that I'm missing by merit of not majoring in english (or whatever). So the professor has overlooked one possibility if the above caricature is accurate, which is that you can take the option, and still learn something. This might not be what any actual person would do, including myself, but the implied assumption behind the professor's thinking is that students are incapable of learning on their own. Either that, or the professor is simply acknowledging that he/she feels that whatever administrative screwup forces students to take the course against their will is stupid, in which case it's more of a friendly gesture. In either case, I'd probably take the option, unless I were actually interested in taking the course. -Dan