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At the start of my teaching career, when I was fresh out of graduate school, I briefly considered trying to pass myself off as a cool professor. Luckily, I soon came to my senses and embraced my true identity as a young fogey.
After one too many students called me by my first name and sent me email that resembled a drunken late-night Facebook post, I took a very fogeyish step. I began attaching a page on etiquette to every syllabus: basic rules for how to address teachers and write polite, grammatically correct emails.
Over the past decade or two, college students have become far more casual in their interactions with faculty members. My colleagues around the country grumble about students' sloppy emails and blithe informality.
[...] Sociologists who surveyed undergraduate syllabuses from 2004 and 2010 found that in 2004, 14 percent addressed issues related to classroom etiquette; six years later, that number had more than doubled, to 33 percent. This phenomenon crosses socio-economic lines. My colleagues at Stanford gripe as much as the ones who teach at state schools, and students from more privileged backgrounds are often the worst offenders.
-- submitted from IRC
Source: The New York Times
(Score: 2) by frojack on Tuesday May 16 2017, @05:32PM (9 children)
This generation's of old people have a lot of gall demanding any respect from younger people just cause.
Since this generation of college professors are more intent on spreading their political agenda than actually teaching, I guess I'd have to agree with you.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by aristarchus on Tuesday May 16 2017, @06:07PM (3 children)
Ah, but my dear and fluffy frojack, how could you possibly tell the difference between a political agenda and the Arts, Sciences, and Humanities? It is bad enough that you cannot address your superiors with the proper decorum, but to remain so ignorant and confused at an institution of Higher Learning, this is truly deplorable.
This is why we cannot have Republicans on campus. All they want to do is treat everything as if it was politics, a matter of opinion, and so they do not study and learn. And the only contribution they make is to invite the occasional controversy, like an Ann, or a Milo, or a Barry (Goldwater). If only they could learn some manners, and intellectual integrity, and political correctness.
(Score: 5, Funny) by melikamp on Tuesday May 16 2017, @06:15PM (2 children)
(Score: 3, Interesting) by DeathMonkey on Wednesday May 17 2017, @12:27AM (1 child)
Thus we learn the source of Aristarchus' angst towards Republicans. A surprising percentage of them still giving him crap over his central thesis. [wikipedia.org]
(Score: 3, Insightful) by aristarchus on Wednesday May 17 2017, @05:39AM
Angst? Is not that a German thing? We Greeks don't do "angst". However, the goat song, the τραγῳδία, [wikipedia.org] is very much a part of Greek culture, from ancient times and even into the present. And what, you may ask, is the essence of tragedy? Oh, it is usually the consequence of hubris, [wikipedia.org] ὕβρις, overweening pride, excessive confidence, certainty of one's beliefs, all things Republicans are guilty of.
The point of tragedy is when the protagonist realizes that it is exactly his cleverness, his total grasp of Ayn Rand, of Von Mises, that precisely brings about the downfall of all that they believe in, that they are the means by which evil manifests itself on earth. And there is nothing they can do to take it back, or make it right, Donald is still the President, and it is all their fault.
They are, of course, not the only ones. But still, anyone who today, with all the evidence and data and confirmation, can dare to assert that Global Warming is not real, that the Earth is flat, or that the Earth is the center of the universe, these people are not just Republicans, they are idiots. Now it used to be true, as the philosopher and employee of the East India Company, John Stuart Mill, used to put it, that will not all conservatives are stupid, it is true that all stupid people are conservative. But this has proven to be unfounded optimism. Now if you are a conservative, you must believe stupid things, young earth creationism, Climate-change denial. Vaccines cause disease!, tax cuts result in increased tax revenue! And that khallow is a sane individual. See? Angst? No. Just fear that the world will end in stupidity rather than enlightenment. If only I had not lost my faith in Mithra. He's coming back, you know. As a Bull. Bull Durham. Hook you, if you're not watching!
(Score: 3, Insightful) by kaszz on Tuesday May 16 2017, @06:09PM
Seems to be mostly non-STEM departments doing that stuff.
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Tuesday May 16 2017, @09:44PM
> Since this generation of college professors are more intent on spreading their political agenda than actually teaching
They spread their political agenda by letting some grad student teach?
Professors are clearly more intent doing some kind of grant-related activity. Is teaching a grant-related activity? Must not be, or we'd see actual professors teaching, a whole 3 hours a week.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Thexalon on Tuesday May 16 2017, @10:38PM (2 children)
For what it's worth: I attended and graduated from a college that is routinely and justifiably cited as a hotbed of liberalism, not all that long ago. But my professors left their political views largely outside of the classroom. In most cases, I didn't even know what their political views were. That's because politics has no effect on linear algebra, database design, music theory, or many other subjects I studied heavily. History, gender studies, and economics got more political, but I have it on good authority (the head of the Young Republicans on campus, who was fairly friendly with me) that conservative ideas were not being rejected out of turn nor became cause for discrimination. The only on-campus speaker I saw anybody try (unsuccessfully) to silence was Bill Clinton's treasury secretary, Larry Summers, and conservative voices like Arthur Laffer were able to speak without incident. There was an ingrained understanding of how to handle speakers whose views you found distasteful: Let them give their speech, then do your best to pillory them in the Q&A section.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 1) by purple_cobra on Wednesday May 17 2017, @12:08PM (1 child)
There was an ingrained understanding of how to handle speakers whose views you found distasteful: Let them give their speech, then do your best to pillory them in the Q&A section.
Quite right too. And also the reason why Theresa May isn't meeting any voters and will not take part in a televised debate with the other party leaders: she can't think on her feet. When someone is feeding her lines or she's reading off a script, she's fine; as soon as she's required to "do politics" - convincing people via persuasion and rhetoric - she fails badly.
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Wednesday May 17 2017, @12:28PM
But is she a capable person to run the country? ie competent and with the right virtues?