Posted on 10/07/2022 2:42:29 PM PDT by Twotone
New York University fired Maitland Jones Jr. because his organic chemistry course was “too hard.” The man wrote the textbook on the subject, now in its fifth edition, and had been a star teacher at Princeton. He went out of his way to tape his lectures, at his own cost, to mitigate some of the attendance problems attributed to the pandemic.
Yet students revolted because they feared, according to the New York Times, that “they were not given the grades that would allow them to get into medical school.”
The professor, meanwhile, saw a different problem: “They weren’t coming to class. … They weren’t watching the videos, and they weren’t able to answer the questions.” But the school terminated his employment rather than the students, who are on track to become physicians despite struggling to get into med school.
Every American should be worried because this kind of standard-lowering is becoming commonplace in medical school.
Organic chemistry is a very difficult subject. Doing well in the course in college has been a litmus test for medical-school suitability. It demands discipline, ability to think in three dimensions, memorizing complex structures, managing a series of chemical rules and solving intricate problems. Its intellectual demands and need for disciplined study are surrogates for the discipline and problem-solving physicians must demonstrate throughout their careers.
Jones could not be more correct in his judgment that his organic chemistry course should be tough. Entry into medical school these days is almost a guarantee that a student will one day have a medical degree and a license to practice medicine. Even struggling students are coached through to graduation. I know this as I was the associate dean for curriculum at Penn’s medical school.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
Out on a limb; nothing is said WHICH students could not be bothered to attend, and felt entitled to demand that the bar be lowered FOR THEM. A bar that every student is expected to clear. But “maff be hard”.
So I have my preconceived bias as to which group of students expects to be practicing medical science; without either the discipline or aptitude to do it
It does frighten me. Note to self. Do not let any MD under the age of 40 years old near me.
Yep! Me too!
Mike Judge has seen the future. It's "Idiocracy".
“In the last two years, they fell off a cliff,” the 84-year-old professor said of the college kids’ pandemic performance. “We now see single digit scores and even zeros.”
“They weren’t coming to class, that’s for sure, because I can count the house,” Jones added, defending himself and saying the kids simply were not studying hard enough. “They weren’t watching the videos, and they weren’t able to answer the questions.”
And this is why I don’t believe in science anymore. The insane have taken over. Science is now pay me and I’ll tell you what you want to hear.
When I took it, the professor insisted it didn’t require a lot of memorization. But it seemed to me mostly about rote memorization. Reagents, temperatures, pressures, catalysts.
—
Ha-ha. I got the same spiel from my prof. It’s not memorization, it’s principles. Yeh, 42,000 principles.
It’s a weed out course. It’s hard because it’s hard. Granted I’m an EE but I had friends in pharmacy, pre med … and they had to bust it to get past organic chem. I would prefer my medical providers not get their professors fired due to “it’s hard”. I prefer my Drs qualified just like the medical equipment well designed, tested built and certified. This isn’t idiocy.
Colleges and universities aren’t for learning anymore. They are for indoctrination, brainwashing and programming. That’s why graduates don’t want to pay for the worthless diplomas they’ve got. Everybody’s got one but that’s all they got out of going to college. A friggin’ diploma that says they are smart. An education? Forget about it. That wasn’t considered necessary. College courses that teach students something are all considered “racist.”
I actively practiced medicine for 46 years. Most of the physicians I worked with were top notch until the last few years. In order to get into med school these days one must meet strict qualifications: female or non-white or LGBTQ. If one meets all three of these go directly to the head of the class. It helps to be WOKE too.
I received A’s in Orgo 1 & 2 w/ labs.
It’s a ton of memorization. I recall despising benzene...
So these students are demanding ‘transgrades’ ???
Gee anything can be transsed ...
Same for the lab folk. Quantitative Analysis was a course I worked a lot harder to finish than Organic.
Did you have that huge Morrison and Boyd book for Organic?
Are you two bad mouthing me?
:)
BTW Im going to be 24 in Dec ...
Dont you dare say Im not
;)
“ Dr. Goldfarb nails it. We want our doctors to be the best they can be. We don’t want slackers polluting our pool of doctors. Do you want your family treated by a doctor who couldn’t be bothered to come to class or do his homework?”
All the good doctors left practice after Obamacare was imposed on us.
He did not have tenure. Despite publishing an organic chemistry textbook, he was employed on a one-year contract, renewable each year at the discretion of the Dean.
I know this because I read it in another article and because I myself am employed as a Mathematics lecturer at a Tennessee university on the same kind of one-year contract. Universities have stopped hiring tenure-track faculty, and one-year renewable contracts are the noose that you must agree to. I've been on a one-year renewable contract since 2010. I have a PhD in Pure Mathematics. My job is different from adjunct -- one-year contract means I have full healthcare and a 401-K. I just don't have job security beyond August 2023. It's a crappy way to live, but there is nothing else.
My husband loved that, and I know I would not have made it through. Ugh.
> Didn’t he have tenure? <
It’s very odd. The guy was “a star teacher at Princeton” (says the article). Then he leaves Princeton to take a year-by-year contract job at New York University. Yes, very odd.
At 84 he was likely retired and in adjunct status. I did the same thing after retiring from academia...just not in organic chemistry. Same problems though—undisciplined, lazy and confrontational students. The only thing that surprises me is that he just did quit mid-semester and tell them where to stick their job.
Not on yourself though, unless you are REALLY good.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.