So, let's get this jackwagon fired.

[rsayloriii]

Sometimes it is about right and wrong, like logic, mathematics, chemistry, electrical engineering....

I can't say that students are being specifically taught to "know how to regurgitate information." Especially in college, certain courses have to cover a lot of information in a short period. The problem is the students have no interest in discriminating between an established fact or theory that probably was in their textbook they should have been reading and some BS opinion that the professor is spouting. Many students really have no interest in learning and lack the necessary critical thinking skills that have to be brought to the table to actually learn. I thought about this at length and have concluded that these skills really can't be taught.

Yes, it can be about right/wrong in certain applications, but as a whole it's about getting them to think on their own.

While college courses are different, I can guarantee you that they teach to regurgitate k-12. It's all about the money. How do the schools get their money? By having students in the classroom for one, and having them passing for two. The former is easy; are they present, yes or no. The latter is a bit more difficult. In order to keep everything on an "even keel", the state mandates an "official" test. Currently it's the STAAR test, but it's gone through many names that traces it's origins all the way back to California. In order for the schools to make sure they get their money, they make sure to push the test hard. They get the previous year or more of tests and try to figure out what is likely to be on this year's test. It's stupid how it's done. They lump in those that have absolutely no chance of passing (life skills level - downs, severe autism, etc.) with the rest of the scores. Previously they had a "modified" version for those that weren't on the life skills spectrum, but weren't of average IQ either. Now, they're doing away with that and everyone will be on the same test. What we need to do is get rid of these tests altogether. These teachers need to actually teach these kids how to learn on their own. Some of it is a maturity issue on whether the kids can actually learn or not. Maybe we need to implement some kind of level system that is more based off of your mental age rather than your physical age.

 

[Odiferous]

Way, way back in the early 90s, when I was stationed in Germany, I took a college history class. The instructor was a newly-minted U.S. Citizen of Arab descent who had an axe to grind about the recently-concluded Operation Desert Storm. He would go on and on about, among other things, how "One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter" and how the slave-owning racist Founding Fathers were no different that Palestinian "terrorists."

After being challenged (mind you, this was on a military base just after a war), he adamantly "reminded" everyone that U.S. Soldiers fought to protect HIS right to Free Speech, blah, blah...

So...one night after class, a bunch of Joes followed him to the train station and explained some things to him.

Although there was no actual violence involved (allegedly, since I wasn't there)...he toned down his mouthiness, and never taught another course on that particular base.

 

[AcidFlashGordon]

It's eerily similar how the rise of the Nazi party is to what is going on today. However, it's not the Tea Party or Republicans that it's most similar to. It's the Democratic Party (talk about an oxymoron ... where's that thread at ...). Racism was a huge part in the Nazi regime. What is going on today? Race wars that, IMO, haven't been seen for quite some time. Who's baiting these race wars? Liberals and those that lean left, more than anyone else.

This is the problem we've been facing for quite some time. These kids go into college thinking that these "professors" must know everything, otherwise they wouldn't be there ... right? For those that go in believing this, they become indoctrinated by the likes of those above. Education should not be about telling people that this is right or wrong. Education is about enabling one to be able to make an informed decision/conclusion on their own. Unfortunately, from kindergarten onwards (nowadays), they are only taught to know how to regurgitate information. I know the kids in my class hate it when I won't "just give them the answer". I might be only one person, and only come in contact with a small number of kids a day, but I won't be a part of the problem. I'd rather fight it from the inside. Luckily I've got a few good teachers alongside me that are actual educators.

The Democrat Party and moreso the liberals continuously seem to have an endless supply of "Blame the other guy" rhetoric on hand. You have those liberals with talk shows that will espouse their personal attacks on conservatives. There are those liberals who believe, much like everyone's favorite "Thrill down your leg" liberal who has made some obscure remarks that he believes the president hasn't done anything wrong in his life....eerily resembling what Robert Ley, leader of the Nazi labor front who commented that every citizen must say that Der Führer is always right. Many of the people that mindlessly watch, listen and believe these televison liberals are those students in classes like Dr. Armstrong's and they won't contradict what he's saying.

Similar analogies can be made concerning the political figures in the news. You have Clinton espousing we must have "empathy" with our enemies and that we need to stop thinking about the individual and, instead, concentrating on what's good for "society." That is very similar to Hitler's ideas of society's needs come before the individual.

 

[breakingcontact]

I avoided this type of nonsense at the University of Houston but I was a double major in Computer Science and Management Information Systems so the professors had no need to spout political propaganda. What majors are these students in to be taking classes with professors like this?

You didnt take any core classes? You seem to be blaming the students' chosen major instead of blaming the professor.

Often these amateur hacks are teaching the low level entry core classes that nearly everyone has to take.

 

[ROGER4314]

In college, there are required courses but several instructors may teach the same subject. You may CHOOSE the instructor that you prefer.

Many courses have equivalent courses that you may choose instead of a troublesome one and they will count towards your degree just as easily.

In short.....Nothing REQUIRES you to sit through a Liberal reprogramming like this dick head offers. You have choices. When droves of students flee his class, Admin will tune him up.

I worked for OSU for one year and prepared degree plans for instructors who worked in outlying or remote locations (like prisons). If there was a "lemon" course, I tried to steer the instructors away from it.

In my undergraduate work, I did poorly in a monster course called "Humanities 271". I found out later that there was an equivalent course called "Music Appreciation" and I took it instead. That was a great course that helped me appreciate Classical music, an interest that I still have today!

Flash

 

[breakingcontact]

In college, there are required courses but several instructors may teach the same subject. You may CHOOSE the instructor that you prefer.

Many courses have equivalent courses that you may choose instead of a troublesome one and they will count towards your degree just as easily.

In short.....Nothing REQUIRES you to sit through a Liberal reprogramming like this dick head offers. You have choices. When droves of students flee his class, Admin will tune him up.

I worked for OSU for one year and prepared degree plans for instructors who worked in outlying or remote locations (like prisons). If there was a "lemon" course, I tried to steer the instructors away from it.

In my undergraduate work, I did poorly in a monster course called "Humanities 271". I found out later that there was an equivalent course called "Music Appreciation" and I took it instead. That was a great course that helped me appreciate Classical music, an interest that I still have today!

Flash

I know all about liberal professors on campus. All about it. I got thrown out of 2 college classes for challenging the liberal professors (in a polite way) and the university backed me up and would not back up the professors.

I became very good friends with a libertarian history professor and a socialist education professor through this as they came to my defense in the name of academic freedom.

Faulting the students for choosing the wrong school, college, degree program, course, or professor is entirely backwards and placing the blame not only incorrectly but in a way that encourages surrendering some disciplines to the left.

 

[Ole Cowboy]

He won't be fired and shouldn't. He has the freedom to say what he said, and he was making an analogy, so he has some cover there. I wish Hank Williams Jr. would have received the same latitude, though, as well as conservative professors when making comments against the left. But I am fearful when the PC police, on either side, has the power to silence a professor in an institute of "higher learning."

If you want to say that he his abusing his authority and essentially brainwashing students, I would say the students there are adults and are responsible for ultimately what the believe and do not believe.

Yes, however he is a TEACHER and it is HE that we need to hold responsible for what he teaches. The school should FIRE is friggin azz.

Or maybe, just maybe I need to go back to school and take his course, just like I did when I got back from Vietnam. The first semester I stood in the lines like everyone else to sign up for courses, the second semester and the rest I had teachers calling me at home asking me to take THEIR course. I never stood in line again, had my schedule long before the semester started.

I PAID $$$ for that college course and the professor was going to teach it and give me his personal opinion on the Vietnam war, if he did I would challenge him then and there, you think I ever lost a challenge? Not hardly, I made plenty look like the fools they were. My tolerance factor was LOW for far left profs and hippies wearing the American flag sewn to the butt of their jeans, they only did it ONCEl

 

[ROGER4314]

Duplicate post....sorry

 

[ROGER4314]

But I am fearful when the PC police, on either side, has the power to silence a professor in an institute of "higher learning."

If you intend to challenge an instructor over class content, first determine what type of employee he/she is. At OSU, we lived by the statement that "Adults vote with their feet". If you run students off, it trashes everyone! Schools take that seriously!

An instructor must cover the essential elements of the course but may ADD additional content.


Here are the players:

Tenured Professors.

Here's a citation from Wikapedia to clarify:
"The intent of tenure is to allow original ideas to be more likely to arise, by giving scholars the intellectual autonomy to investigate the problems and solutions as they see fit, and to report their honest conclusions. However, it has also become a type of job security for professors."

It's hard to fight a tenured professor! Earning tenure is a nightmare but it concretes that Professor into position. View a tenured professor as you would bricks of the building. Only a horrible breach of law or morals could blast a tenured professor out of the job.

Tenured people live by "Publish or Perish" rules and primarily, write books/manuals/texts. That is their main interest and they teach because they must also log some classroom hours.

Non tenured professors.

There may be some talent in this group. These Professors may have their PhD or EdD but have not earned tenure. Some are terrific and some...not so hot. The University gives them a trial period to make tenure. Some fail to make tenure and move on. These folks CAN be attacked successfully because they work on yearly or 3 year contracts. If they don't do well, the school simply declines to their renew their contract.

Adjunct.

Part time, one time teacher. May be highly qualified and do a very good job. These instructors have NO tenure, position, benefits or rights. They work on short term, one time contracts and if they draw heat, the school just won't offer them another contract.

I have been an adjunct at the local college for many years. Obama, who is called a "Professor of Constitutional Law" is an adjunct. He taught ONE course, ONE time, the course was prepared for him alone. When he moved on, that course was never taught again. Obama is not a professor of anything!

Graduate Students.

Occasionally, a tenured professor may be deeply into his/her publishing activities so he/she uses a graduate assistant to teach classes for him/her. Grad Assistants took the class, did well on it and were considered qualified to teach it. They may also be working with the professor on research projects.

Your course catalog will list the class and specify that it will be taught by "Staff". It's a safe bet that "staff" will mean an adjunct or a Grad assistant as an instructor.

Grad Assistants can be heaven or Hell. They may be organized, talented and teach a good course OR they may be disorganized, unprepared and only interested in earning their meager (and just over) minimum wage salary.

So...If you're going to attack a college instructor, first find out what level of employment he/she is.


PS......Obama is a "Professor of Constitutional Law". My God, what a lie/joke/disgrace!

Flash

 

[TwinGlocks]

You didnt take any core classes?

I did. There was one professor that admitted his left wing bias but I didn't get the feeling he was trying to indoctrinate us and he didn't make inflammatory comments like comparing the tea party to Nazis. In fact, the material this professor put forth (arguing that Reagan's policies were responsible for the prosperity of the 90's) helped convert me from a Democrat to a Libertarian/Republican voter so I would not put him on the same boat as this other professor we're talking about in this thread.

You seem to be blaming the students' chosen major instead of blaming the professor.

That's not my intention. It would seem out of place to spout out political propaganda in a programming course but I can see it happening in a History, Political Science, or [insert gender or ethnicity or "alternative" lifestyle] studies course.

I'm trying to understand why I didn't encounter this (or encountered so little of it) in my own studies. Don't get me wrong, I know they're out there based of some of the opinion pieces some professors would submit to the University Newspaper and these were always Liberal Arts professors.

Often these amateur hacks are teaching the low level entry core classes that nearly everyone has to take.

Okay.

 

[JohnnyLoco]

Yes, however he is a TEACHER and it is HE that we need to hold responsible for what he teaches. The school should FIRE is friggin azz.

It all depends on whether or not his asinine comments/opinions will be on an exam or quiz, probably wouldn't be. I wouldn't shed a tear if he was fired, maybe he should be reprimanded, I'm just saying--where do you draw the line, and should there be someone monitoring every word that a teacher says in the classroom?

Like I said, it's much more effective, and fun, to challenge these bozos in the classroom, as opposed to acting like liberals and trying to play PC police by recording them like little weasels and using the tape to try to get them fired.

 

[TX69]

It wouldn't work out. But we can still be friends?

lol no homo - we be friends

 

[TheDan]

Faulting the students for choosing the wrong school, college, degree program, course, or professor is entirely backwards and placing the blame not only incorrectly but in a way that encourages surrendering some disciplines to the left.

You still have a choice on where you goto school and whose classes you take. If a particular professor can't get people to sign up for their class, something is going to be re-evaluated. Why does CTD stay in business? It's because people keep shopping there. Some disciplines are there only to support the left. Their "loss" isn't a concern.

The biggest gripe I had when I was taking classes was understanding the professor. So many of their English was so bad, no one knew what they were saying. For chemistry I taught my study group the whole class because no one could understand the prof. I remember someone asking him how long he had lived in the US and the guy said 12 years! Didn't even care no one could understand him. I finally dropped out because I had enough.

 

[breakingcontact]

Will comment more later.

My comments will be on the first part, not on "So many of their English was so bad..."

 

[Jakashh]

I avoided this type of nonsense at the University of Houston but I was a double major in Computer Science and Management Information Systems so the professors had no need to spout political propaganda. What majors are these students in to be taking classes with professors like this?

I go to the University of Houston, Bauer, and haven't experienced a politically slanted professor yet. Haven't had a slanted professor since high school where a prof preached FDR like Jesus and my time at HCC where an economics teacher made it seem like Keynesian economics was the best and everything else was stupid.

To be fair, I did have a history teacher at HCC who admit that FDR didn't get us out of the depression and WW2 did, so it's not all liberals.

 

[Chirpy]

In college, there are required courses but several instructors may teach the same subject. You may CHOOSE the instructor that you prefer.

Many courses have equivalent courses that you may choose instead of a troublesome one and they will count towards your degree just as easily.

In short.....Nothing REQUIRES you to sit through a Liberal reprogramming like this dick head offers. You have choices. When droves of students flee his class, Admin will tune him up.

Maybe at a large state college, but in a smaller college there may be only one or two offerings per semester, so you don't have a lot of choices especially if you're trying to factor in some other specialty courses. I hated advising students for this very reason.

At a small liberal arts college the infestation can be pretty severe, and leave no alternatives. As a for instance, we just had a faculty committee pick a non-controversial speaker to talk about sexual assault, someone who wouldn't polarize the issue and could bring in the athletes and frat boys (who of course stage huge rape parties every weekend). Who did they pick?

Wendy Davis. Yup, that Wendy Davis. She's not polarizing at all to the faculty.

When you're that far down the rabbit hole, you know longer know what fresh air tastes like.

 

[ROGER4314]

Maybe at a large state college, but in a smaller college there may be only one or two offerings per semester, so you don't have a lot of choices especially if you're trying to factor in some other specialty courses.

You're making this WAY too difficult! If you don't like the school, the instructors or their Liberal bias and the remedies discussed earlier won't work, then change schools. You have choices and there is NOTHING chaining a student into an offending class, teacher or institution.

I attended three Universities in three different states. If you don't like where you are enrolled.....then transfer!

Flash

 

[breakingcontact]

1. You still have a choice on where you goto school and whose classes you take.

2. If a particular professor can't get people to sign up for their class, something is going to be re-evaluated.

3. Some disciplines are there only to support the left. Their "loss" isn't a concern.

Again, this is blaming the student, program, discipline, college etc instead of the out of control professors.

1. We have a choice were we go to college, yes. And the state heavily subsidizes public colleges so that is where most people go. So, yes, we do have a choice, but that choice is heavily spun. Who's classes we take? Sure, often you could choose the professor you wanted, but other times, that was the only professor who taught the class. This is especially true as classes get into higher levels and in graduate school. Also, the classes are often only delivered once a year even. So, sometimes you don't have a choice, IF you need that class.

2. Something is going to be re-evaluated if the professor cannot get people to sign up for their class? You are putting a lot of faith into the system here. You are counting on the system to work. Also, how many college students are politically aware, especially on the right/libertarian side of things? Most just want to get through and get the degree without causing many waves. When I was challenging a prof over Haliburton (me arguing for Haliburton doing water projects in Africa lest the people have no clean water), my classmates had no idea what I was talking about. One thanked me after class, but did he speak up IN class? Nope.

3. Some disciplines are there only to support the left? That's a slippery slope lubed with Frog Lube 3000! Sure, women's studies and things like that are products of the left, but what may be the next purview of the left? Is a school of medicine now a sanctuary for lefties due to obamacare? Giving up disciplines is very dangerous. Net neutrality goes through, will the computer world be taken out of the corporate sphere and rolled into government? Then the same can be said of computer science, funded and controlled by the government, "oh, that field is a loss, it's a discipline of the left now".

I'm not saying students should be apathetic. Yes, they need to be politically and academically aware. That is when I really became active in politics, in college. I got tossed out of (and reinstated) in 2 separate classes (which I needed for my degree and were offered by 1 professor that semester). I got real pissed off and got active. I met a libertarian history prof who sponsored the college republicans. Prof Jonathan Bean eHistory and The Beacon: The Blog of The Independent Institute I joined the CR and became an officer and we got David Horowitz to come to campus and speak on Academic Freedom. Around the same time I got thrown out of that class I got thrown out of another (this time for going to war with a prof for denying human rights abuses in China, and threatened with expulsion from my college) but a socialist teaching assistant came to my defense in the name of academic freedom.

Anyways, my point aside from the main three illustrated above is that college isn't necessarily going to be void of politically motivating instruction, but students need to be aware and the professors and colleges need to allow dissent if we are truly engaging in classically liberal education.

All of that being said, I value experience over education and private over public education.

Bonus: I was informally accused in the school newspaper of a hate crime for my free speech in a "free speech zone".

 

[ROGER4314]

You're right. A student is stuck with whatever cards are dealt to him. There's no way to change it and it's hopeless........ Argument settled.

Enjoy your despair...snicker.

Flash

 

[breakingcontact]

You're right. A student is stuck with whatever cards are dealt to him. There's no way to change it and it's hopeless........ Argument settled.

Enjoy your despair...snicker.

Flash

I'll withhold my response until you confirm if this is sent in my direction...