I'm an evil, heartless bastard. My student told me so...

[DevilDuck]

Reminds me of a final exam I took in high school.

DIRECTIONS: Write your name at the top of the page and turn it in.

1.) Tell me why Hamlet was a troubled man and if he were alive today, what prescription medications would he be taking to make his life a little more tolerable.





Well, needless to say, I turned my paper in within 5 minutes. I put my name at the top of the page and looked around the room at everyone scribbling down whatever it was trying to pass this "test". I was dumbfounded. When I turned my blank page in, my teacher thanked me, but a big red "A" on my paper and told me to have a good summer.

 

[GrumpyBear]

you know what else is stressful? life. if you can't show that you didn't just randomly guess the right answer why should you get credit? if you don't know to read instructions in general let alone on a test LET ALONE when the prof has a reputation like this then why shouldn't you fail? profs aren't there to hold your hand, they're there to teach and grade you.

WARNING: this is all very bitter due to the fact that everyday i see the not insignificant population of idiots who are getting by without doing any work, they never come to class and they copy all their assignments off a friend then get by with b's or c's depending on the weighting of the exams which they all near fail but blame the prof (cuz he's an evil heartless bastard, you see...). my generation is mainly comprised of a bunch of lazy, morally corrupt bastards.

 

[Pam]

Wow...I'm not even going to touch that one.

Never saw "Good Morning, Vietnam" , huh?

Actually, they do get an ungraded "quiz" the first day of class. I call it a questionnaire to see if they know what they need to know upon entering my class.

So, what do you do for the ones who don't demonstrate the necessary skills? I have found that the products of "No child left behind" coming through the system now need just about everything explained to them in great detail. They've been conditioned to passively memorize facts, not string them together. I'm not teaching anything as complex or difficult as you are, and I still have to walk some of them through the series of steps necessary to make independent decisions about simple tasks.

One other thing I guess you should know...the course is curved, and I only fail students who don't try, are caught cheating, or score less than 30% on the final.

Ok, so you're not the hard ass your first post implied you were. I apologize if I was being too hard on you.

I was just frustrated because I told them to read carefully. The goal of my class isn't too weed people out, I have twice as many majors this year compared to when I started, and I'm damn proud of that. I want my students to succeed, but while possesing knowledge is important, equally important is being able to use and integrate that knowledge and learn more. The literature is where those skills are put to use, and glossing over minor things can be the difference between doing something well and safe, and failing (and sometimes creating an accident).

Yabut, where are they supposed to learn those skills? Very few are taught them in high school anymore, and very few college instructors are going to take the time to walk them through the thought processes that are required for knowledge integration.
And, have you explained to your class why it's so important in the field of chemistry not to gloss over things like question instructions? I'd bet good money a lot of them don't. Heh, from the number of explosions upstairs and the horror stories I've been told, I'd bet good money that there are lots of chemistry majors that don't know why minor details are important.

I'm just surprised at how many replys came so quickly.

Ha! I'm betting more than a few of us have been in that student's shoes once or twice.

 

[Pam]

Reminds me of a final exam I took in high school.

DIRECTIONS: Write your name at the top of the page and turn it in.

1.) Tell me why Hamlet was a troubled man and if he were alive today, what prescription medications would he be taking to make his life a little more tolerable.


Well, needless to say, I turned my paper in within 5 minutes. I put my name at the top of the page and looked around the room at everyone scribbling down whatever it was trying to pass this "test". I was dumbfounded. When I turned my blank page in, my teacher thanked me, but a big red "A" on my paper and told me to have a good summer.

I would have been one of those people scribbling away. Well, actually, I'd have been up front confronting the teacher, demanding to know why the teacher was wasting my time with something that stupid *before* I started scribbling away.


I was one of those people who could never cut class because the class was so quiet when I wasn't there, everyone noticed.

 

[bentalphanerd]

I would have been one of those people scribbling away. Well, actually, I'd have been up front confronting the teacher,

Pam Macbeth

 

[ring sting]

If your driving instructor asked you not to hit the markers going around the course, and you took them all out, should you still get your licence just because you didnt listen or understand?

WARNING: this is all very bitter due to the fact that everyday i see the not insignificant population of idiots who are getting by without doing any work, they never come to class and they copy all their assignments off a friend then get by with b's or c's depending on the weighting of the exams which they all near fail but blame the prof (cuz he's an evil heartless bastard, you see...). my generation is mainly comprised of a bunch of lazy, morally corrupt bastards.

I'm a bit older than the average undergrad, and have attempted university previously. I now have a better attitude to learning (no longer in the bar 18 hrs a day) and I too have seen the dumbing down of tertiary education.

I speak regularly with my lecturers (coz I'm not afraid of them) and they have all complained of indignant students wanting to bribe them to get the answers to an exam, the abysmal use of English and generally a lack of understanding of topics. What's driving this?? The sense of entitlement some people seem to have.

"I'm here, I've paid good money, now give me my bit of paper." Well, this isn't the government sector. No doing the time here. I dont want to start a business, hire someone and then find out that they cant actually do accounting without Quicken.

Keep it up DTT, I want my compounding chemist/pharmacist to actually be able to make my medicines!

 

[dreamtheatervt]

Never saw "Good Morning, Vietnam" , huh?

Not recently, and it was probably only part of the edited for TV version

So, what do you do for the ones who don't demonstrate the necessary skills? I have found that the products of "No child left behind" coming through the system now need just about everything explained to them in great detail. They've been conditioned to passively memorize facts, not string them together. I'm not teaching anything as complex or difficult as you are, and I still have to walk some of them through the series of steps necessary to make independent decisions about simple tasks.

They are told what they need to gloss up on, and I make myself available to answer any questions they have.

Yabut, where are they supposed to learn those skills?

And, have you explained to your class why it's so important in the field of chemistry not to gloss over things like question instructions?

Exactly why I want to start teaching them now, and I tell them to read carefully before hand. Sometimes mistakes are the best teachers.

 

[Pam]

Pam Macbeth

Now, now, I never actually made any of them bleed. You know, except for the ulcers I may have given them.



True story: When my little sister graduated from high school, the principal, as he handed her the diploma, said "Thank god, the last of the R***s!"

 

[dreamtheatervt]

All complained of indignant students wanting to bribe them to get the answers to an exam

I've never been offered a bribe, monetary or otherwise

Keep it up DTT, I want my compounding chemist/pharmacist to actually be able to make my medicines!

Thanks RingSting.

 

[Pam]

If your driving instructor asked you not to hit the markers going around the course, and you took them all out, should you still get your licence just because you didnt listen or understand?

That depends, doesn't it, on whether or not the instructor adequately performed his job of teaching the students how not to hit the markers while going around the course *before* he gave them the exam.

 

[Pam]

Well, now that I think of it, I need one to....not desperatly though.... it would go nice with some pie as well...

I'm never one to sneer at gratification opportunites myself, but I prefer ice cream, mint chocolate chip ice cream.

 

[Hot Canuck]

Now, now, I never actually made any of them bleed. You know, except for the ulcers I may have given them.
True story: When my little sister graduated from high school, the principal, as he handed her the diploma, said "Thank god, the last of the R***s!"

Last edited by Pam : Today at 08:17 PM. Reason: name removed 'cause Hot Canuck, the big sweetie, worries about me

 

[ring sting]

That depends, doesn't it, on whether or not the instructor adequately performed his job of teaching the students how not to hit the markers while going around the course *before* he gave them the exam.

Then maybe this person shouldn't be the teacher.

I know it's a long bow, but....

So, that means that if my doctor had a bad teacher it's OK to pass him/her, and when s/he leaves a clamp in my abdomen, it's OK, the teacher was crap? Is this a reflection on the quality of teachers coming through the system?

I think most people understand that education standards in the western world are deteriorating, particularly in the "user pays" nations such as Australia. But this is no excuse to lower the standard.

 

[imaguitargod]

I'm just surprised at how many replys came so quickly.

I'm sitting at home bored and drinking.....and I think other people were doing the same

Reminds me of a final exam I took in high school.

DIRECTIONS: Write your name at the top of the page and turn it in.

1.) Tell me why Hamlet was a troubled man and if he were alive today, what prescription medications would he be taking to make his life a little more tolerable.

Well, needless to say, I turned my paper in within 5 minutes. I put my name at the top of the page and looked around the room at everyone scribbling down whatever it was trying to pass this "test". I was dumbfounded. When I turned my blank page in, my teacher thanked me, but a big red "A" on my paper and told me to have a good summer.

I HAD THE SAME THING BUT IN 6th GRADE!!! HAHAHAHA!!! I was the only one who passed that too!

Never saw "Good Morning, Vietnam" , huh?

"It's 0'600 hours here, do you know what the 0 stands for? OH my god it's early!"


[RANT]Some of your rants about the dumbing down of the average person (and this topic in general) reminds me of an experience I had in Columbus at the Fiery Foods Show. An experience I wrote up recently for a review of said event in which Joe Levinson was speaking and everyone else in the room was talking, I'll quote it here for you guys;

"It was getting close to the time that the wing eating contest would be taking place so I quickly got my seat upstairs. The place was packed with people feeding their fat faces while the CaJohn’s presentations were still going on up front! Ok, here’s where the review gets a bit nasty so anyone that gets offended by remarks of truth should turn away for the next three paragraphs.

Have you turned away yet? Good. Here we go. I was delighted to see that the scheduled “Chilihead’s Prospective” topic was actually headed by none other than our very own Joe! He was speaking on the topic of what it’s like to be a pepper eater and about the blog. But the room was so packed unintelligent Homo heidelbergensis’ (yes that’s right, they hadn’t even reached the quota of intelligence that I would give the Homo neanderthalensis’) that were there thinking only of “me me me”. They were all talking at once to each other making the room a hotbox of nonsensical, lowbrow dribble.

You could barely even hear what Joe had to say because of these simpletons! These are the type of jackasses that take their screaming 8 month old, chubby, drooling, germ carrying baby to an R rated Schwarzenegger flick and become offended when you tell them to shut that kid the hell up. The type of people that are so full of themselves and pigheaded that when you tell them to watch out for the bus that’s about to hit them they’ll look at you like you said something offensive. The kind of people that make you realize why some animals eat their young.

I was so offended that I almost stood up and yelled out for people to give a little respect for the person who’s talking on stage. But in some twisted way that would probably make me the jerk so I just bit my tongue. Besides, why help them be better stupid?

Well, from what I was able to hear of it, Joe gave a really great presentation."

People are getting dumber and dumber. It's good to see that there still are teachers out there that are trying to make people think so that we don't get these idiots out there that have been spoon fed life. I say keep on rockin’ the boat, dreamtheatervt! You're not heartless and evil, you are practical and well intentioned. [/RANT]

Oh yes, I like pie.

 

[imaguitargod]

I'm never one to sneer at gratification opportunites myself, but I prefer ice cram, mint chocolate chip ice cream.

Man, you women love that aphrodisiatic chocolate

 

[ring sting]

Well put IGG.

 

[imaguitargod]

Well put IGG.

Which one, the rant or the chocolate?

 

[Pam]

Then maybe this person shouldn't be the teacher.

Exactly!

The teacher should be removed and the students given a competent and responsible one before being tested.

 

[Hot Canuck]

IGG, it's a pretty big stretch to compare your uncouth group with a bunch of young students, who are under tons of pressure, failing an exam on a very difficult subject, because the professor decides to spice up his test with some mensa style diversionary tactics.

If you want to test the student's knowledge of the subject, then test the subject. If you want to make it more difficult by inserting non-subject related pressure, then perhaps they should have to stand on their head for the exam, or write it will someone gives them a purple nurple, or maybe play Milli Vanilli at 1000 decibels in the background...

Would these inane exercises make the test more difficult - yes.

Wouldn't it just make more sense to come up with more difficult subject-related questions?


Yes...

 

[Pam]

People are getting dumber and dumber. It's good to see that there still are teachers out there that are trying to make people think so that we don't get these idiots out there that have been spoon fed life. I say keep on rockin’ the boat, dreamtheatervt! You're not heartless and evil, you are practical and well intentioned. [/RANT]

What you're describing isn't dumb people, though. It's rude people. There are lots of well and highly educated people who lack good manners. Even more who lack common sense, but that's one of the things that gives me job security, so we won't worry about that right now.

Oh yes, I like pie.

A la mode?