The first letter, regarding a person handing in a paper to the wrong professor; not something I've done, but it could happen to anyone, especially someone with ADD. It has nothing to do with being a senior. Anybody, student or otherwise, might accidently switch-up some papers. For him to make such a big deal out of it is just him being a grade A a**hole.
Second, the thing about 'bathroom breaks.' I agree, people shouldn't take calls in class, but if somebody wants to leave the room to take a call, go to the bathroom, or whatever, thats not his friggin business. College is not highschool, I pay a sh!tload of money for a service that I will use as I see fit, and no academic windbag is going to tell me I can't get up. If I want to take a piss I'll take a damn piss -- If I miss something, thats MY responsibilty and problem, not his.
Perhaps, when you gain some maturity, you will understand.
“He that has the gold makes the rules.”
Professor Adams makes the rules. Students obey the rules or suffer the consequences.
Life is like that most of the time.
I just finished a class in December. At first everyone was on time and then more and more started coming in late. It was a distraction to those of us who were paying a $h1tl0ad of money and were on time.
I don’t think the first paper was actually handed in to the wrong professor...
It was just written very poorly...
Love it!!
As a former college student myself, I respectfully disagree.
The issue here is largely one of respect.
In a sense, any interruption has a compression wave effect on whatever is going on. Think about how one car slowing down or changing lanes inappropriately can cause a long delay on the interstate, for instance.
I do not think that it is respectful of other students (particularly those with “ADD” or “ADHD”, who may get completely thrown off track by a call or text session) or the professor’s time and talents to use a phone in class or get up and disturb it for any light reason. We learned in church and elementary school to take our restroom breaks prior to the beginning to avoid just that sort of interruption.
As an adult student, I always alerted my professors to the fact that I could have certain work/family/legal calls that were always going to buzz regardless of my phone status - in an emergency only - and that only this would limit my compliance with their policies.
You are right, students are adults and pay for their college credits (some of them, most are on the dole from daddy or Uncle Sugar) and so have the right to “use [the service] as [they] see fit.” However, it can impact more than just “miss[ing] something” for that student, so they should accept the responsibility for that grown up decision to waste time and money for themselves and others and not complain if there are consequences which could impact their grade or subsequent time and money when they have to retake a failed course. Adults get to learn from their mistakes, too.
College students can’t hold it in for an hour?!!
Ever heard of using the potty before class?
I wish cell phones were never invented. They are the rudest contraptions ever created.
I had a similar professor when I went to school. If you were late by even one minute, you got a zero. Didn’t turn in your work on time, you got a zero. Failed a quiz/test, you got a zero. Three zeroes and you failed the class. No questions. Oh, and you weren’t welcome to continue with his class once you got to three for that semester.
As a freshman (undecided at the time), I heard this speech on the first day of his class in my first semester. I decided to “avoid” him and quickly switched to another class that semester. All those rules would certainly get in the way of my social commitments.
As time went by and I chose my major you couldn’t get past “Go” to collect your $200 without going through his courses. So I bucked up and played by his rules. It was one of the best decisions of my life. He was a total SOB but in the “Paper Chase” kinda way. At the end of school he was an advisor and somewhat of a friend.
That went down 27 years ago. To this day I play by those rules in my day to day. The bottom line is that his rules helped reinforce the concepts of commitment, time management, hard work and respect for others and their time. I like to think I’m a better person for it.
As a college student myself, I completely disagree. Most students are pretty freaking stupid and refuse to take responsibility for anything even after years of schooling. We’re not in Highschool. We’re supposed to be somewhat professional and committed to our work.
As a former college student.
My Dean who also happened to be the professor/teacher of my major explained in simple terms to me once the following.
There is waiting list for this class- either be on time and prepared or drop the class.
It was disrespectful on my part to be late, not show up or be distracted- even though I was paying my money to take class.
A life lesson that more should learn. When in the working world the employer does not need an unprepared or distracted worker.
Also it is encumbent on the employee to show up on time and ready to work.
In todays economy— more students could benefit from my life lesson.
There are many waiting for a job- if I choose to not show up, turn in substandard work or be distracted there are many waiting in the wings to take my place.
You have obviously never read a column by Mike Adams. He writes satire
“... it could happen to anyone, especially someone with ADD”
It actually did happen to me. Fortunately, it was a 400 level class (smaller class size) and the Professor caught the mistake before I left. The reason wasn’t ADD. It was simply that I was taking a full load of college courses, and working 38 hours a week. I had gotten about 2-3 hours of sleep a night for about ten days. Quite frankly... I was exhausted and my brain was simply fried. My point is not all college students just go to school. Many have jobs and other responsibilities. Thankfully, my Professors (at the time) remembered when they were students and had a bit of empathy rather than sarcasm. IMHO.
Interesting, and revealing, comment. I suppose that sh!tload of money entitles you to a 4.0 GPA.
You're right when you say college is not high school. You aren't there to socialize and screw around, you should be there to prepare yourself for the competition of the big, bad world.
Your professor is your boss, not the other way around.
It’s easy to say “well, no big diff, just hand in the correct paper. No problem”.
Consider another scenario. Let’s say an engineer (me for instance) is working on a contracted development project potentially worth hundreds of millions of dollars. As part of the project, there are certain contracted dates when deliverables are due. Lets say that the deliverable is a dataset of performance measurements accumulated over a couple months time. Upon satisfactory delivery, the customer will release (pay us) an incremental lump of development money.
So under this scenario, if I send a dataset from some other project, and the customer has to tell me that I screwed up, do you think the bean counters are really going to pony up the cash?
Sorry, but life sometimes has real deadlines without “Do overs”.
(1) Why don't you write a research paper on ADD. It has been around for millenia, and was commonly and successfully cured by assiduous adherence to study habits engrained in young (mostly male) students by strict teachers of those academic disciplines that had actual, factual content. To those few in whom ADD is not curable, another interesting world of non-academic pursuits was and still can be made available.
(2)Cell phones, iPods, continuous "music" are all pernicious distractions. You are a student; not a "consumer" of academics.
(3) Academics require effort from the student and the teacher. Study is not like animal nutrition, e.g, the instructor is a farmer filling the trough with feed requiring mere ingestion.
You are correct in that College today is not like high school. Many of your fellow students would not have made it through high school 50 years ago. Frankly NR, that is more a condemnation of my generation, than of yours. But our failure is something you might consider. In fact, it is my personal observation (quite possibly jaundiced) that today's "College" student can have less factual or even practical knowledge under control than a 7th grader of the 1950's.
The fact that some 80+% of under-30 voters went for Obama's line of Marxist twaddle may possibly bear witness to my views. BTW, I really enjoy that part of my life in which I serve as an adjunct instructor in Mathematics at my local community college... and since my hard-working students (whom I deeply respect) are at least willing to try a course with actual, real, non-political content, which could mean they are intending to major in real disciplines at reputable institutions... they are head and shoulders above the rest of the slovenly, cell-phone, earphone, tattooed jackass mob of academic "consumers" who need "call of nature" breaks every 15 minutes and who are passed through the institution with meaningless "qualifications," indeed without ever learning how to read and write!
Why not post one of your papers outlining your views on a serious subject as a vanity here on FR? The feedback could prove valuable.
>>>As a college student myself, I have to say that this guy sounds like a professor that I would avoid taking classes under if at all possible.
The first letter, regarding a person handing in a paper to the wrong professor; not something I’ve done, but it could happen to anyone, especially someone with ADD. It has nothing to do with being a senior. Anybody, student or otherwise, might accidently switch-up some papers. For him to make such a big deal out of it is just him being a grade A a**hole.
Second, the thing about ‘bathroom breaks.’ I agree, people shouldn’t take calls in class, but if somebody wants to leave the room to take a call, go to the bathroom, or whatever, thats not his friggin business. College is not highschool, I pay a sh!tload of money for a service that I will use as I see fit, and no academic windbag is going to tell me I can’t get up. If I want to take a piss I’ll take a damn piss — If I miss something, thats MY responsibilty and problem, not his.<<<<
Says here you signed up at Free Republic about five months ago. And you claim to be a college student. My guess is that you’re in your 20s, maybe early 30s. Of course, you’d avoid a professor like this. He wants to act in a mature manner. If your writing is any indication, you’re not up to the challenge.
No, you don’t have a right to disrupt any group of people anywhere getting up and down because you want to do something. Apparently no one taught you that other people are more important than yourself. That includes bothering a roomful of people to talk on the phone, getting up to pee, stretching your legs, or anything else you want to do that isn’t an absolute emergency. You may not know this, but the simple act of getting up in the middle of a classroom, or a church, or a movie theater, disrupts everyone else.
You also may not have caught Prof. Adams’ subtle statement about the ADD student complaining endlessly about this condition. The student is pictured as a whining infant who uses ADD as an excuse for misbehavior. Adults are responsible for their behavior. Yes, I’m sure that arrogant jerks would think pointing that out makes the person pointing it out an asshole. They’re incorrect. The whiner is the asshole.
I’m guessing that you were raised in the self-esteem era, in which kids were taught that they could do what they wanted where they wanted when they wanted. I’m guessing that’s what ruined you. The good news is that you have to time to grow up. Good luck.
Having earned more than one graduate degree, I have to say that undergraduates with the attitude you display need to shut their yaps, remove the chips from their shoulders, develop a bit of honest humility, and learn.
You wanna lecture, son, you gotta earn the right.
You're absolutely right kid, you've just taken the first step into joining the big leagues and right now you're playing minor league ball. If you haven't learned how to time your "piss" breaks to coincide with before class or after then you still belong at home with your mother until you're properly potty trained.......
You think college is a bitch? Join the army and find out what your DI has to say about your "piss" breaks..He's likely to forcefully remove your helmet from your head and give you a proper recepticle in which to relieve yourself........
I can't believe that you actually had the guts to make the statement you made on THIS website.........