Slightly off topic, but I have a bachelor's degree in Management. The courses were a joke. I wish I followed my passion in college, but figured a degree in Management would get me a job. The Manaagement classes were basically business classes. I was young, and naive.
Texas college professor tries to flunk his whole class
41–50 of 69 posts
Re: Texas college professor tries to flunk his whole class
#42I graduated from the college in question - Texas A&M University at Galveston (TAMUG). Off the bat, I don't know that professor or any of those students (I was in a different major, and had great professors). The problem I have with this story is that someone went to the media with rather than dealing with the school administration. Based on KPRC's online video of the report, it was probably John R Shaw Jr. The video…
> The problem I have with this story is that someone went to the media with rather than dealing with the school administration.
"...he added that the university wasn't responding to his complaints about their behavior, pushing him to take this drastic step."
Re: Texas college professor tries to flunk his whole class
#43Earlier quoted context omitted.
Most USA-people do this, and they're aware of it: when they talk about 'universities', or '[some class of] people', or 'VC' or whatever else. I think the reasons they do it are a combination of efficiency and a feeling that the rest of the world isn't always necessary to the discussion. Those of us outside the US may feel it's naive, but it's unlikely they'll change. The simplest thing for us to do is to assume they…
US citizens may be less cultured.
Define cultured? Say you're an average European. Hop into your (rented) car and drive 4 hours in any linear direction? Who are you going to see? Chances are someone from a different culture and history and probably one who once warred with you. I jump in my car and drive 4 hours, I'm at my state capital. I drive another 4 hours, I'm in Georgia.
America is a huge country. We were the EU before unioning was cool. The "countries" (states) we interact with are all the same. Nothing but Sun Glass Huts and McDonalds coast to coast.
Does that make us uncultured? No, it makes us so cultured that we can get along with 25% of the worlds economy. Just some historical things to think about.
Re: Texas college professor tries to flunk his whole class
#44If this college class operates like the ones I had then I think the professor is in the wrong. On the first day I would be given a syllabus that clearly outlined the grading scale and how the grade was calculated. I look at that like a contract. Professor presented students with a grading scale, students accept by staying in the class or withdraw from the class. Granted I know nothing about this particular incident,…
What you describe is exactly how it should be and is considered best practice in education. Not a contract, but the terms and expectations of the class set out as clearly as possible in advance. In this case, this has failed. The professor has then tried to punish all the students on his own whim, presumably because of the actions of a minority. What about the other students: those who didn't cheat, those who didn't…
> What about the other students: those who didn't cheat, those who didn't spread rumours, those who didn't contribute to an unsafe atmosphere, and those who met the educational goals of the class? There's no possible way the whole class deserves a blanket fail.
As a faculty member, I can understand someone wanting to fail an entire class - some classes are just bad, and some students are bad people - but you just can't do it. If someone is disrupting the learning environment, they have to be removed. You're performing when you enter the classroom, and you have to deal with the hecklers and the critics.
Re: Texas college professor tries to flunk his whole class
#45Horwitz, who has taught management for two decades...
What exactly did he teach? It doesn't appear he learned very much about "management".
Imagine a manager firing all 30 of his direct reports. What would you suspect was the problem, the manager or the workers? Same thing here.
Perhaps Professor Horwitz should get a real management job. Then he'd learn how easy he'd had it for the past two decades.
Re: Texas college professor tries to flunk his whole class
#46Earlier quoted context omitted.
US citizens may be less cultured.
Define cultured? Say you're an average European. Hop into your (rented) car and drive 4 hours in any linear direction? Who are you going to see? Chances are someone from a different culture and history and probably one who once warred with you. I jump in my car and drive 4 hours, I'm at my state capital. I drive another 4 hours, I'm in Georgia. America is a huge country. We were the EU before unioning was cool. The "…
> probably one who once warred with you
On the other hand, in the US if I drive 4 hours south, I'm firmly in Confederate states.
Re: Texas college professor tries to flunk his whole class
#47Earlier quoted context omitted.
US citizens may be less cultured.
Define cultured? Say you're an average European. Hop into your (rented) car and drive 4 hours in any linear direction? Who are you going to see? Chances are someone from a different culture and history and probably one who once warred with you. I jump in my car and drive 4 hours, I'm at my state capital. I drive another 4 hours, I'm in Georgia. America is a huge country. We were the EU before unioning was cool. The "…
> Nothing but Sun Glass Huts and McDonalds coast to coast.
This is so amazingly wrong I don't know where to begin.
Re: Texas college professor tries to flunk his whole class
#48If this college class operates like the ones I had then I think the professor is in the wrong. On the first day I would be given a syllabus that clearly outlined the grading scale and how the grade was calculated. I look at that like a contract. Professor presented students with a grading scale, students accept by staying in the class or withdraw from the class. Granted I know nothing about this particular incident,…
If the syllabus is a contract, cheating is a breach of the covenant of good faith and fair dealing. I'm all for failing classes pervasive cheating. There isn't enough social pressure in schools to name and shame cheaters.
> I'm all for failing classes pervasive cheating. There isn't enough social pressure in schools to name and shame cheaters.
I'm all for failing individuals who cheat, including every single student in a class if that's the case. It's hard to tell if that's what's happened here. It kind of looks like the prof is (rightly) fed up with a bunch of things and (questionably) throwing a tantrum.
As for pressure to name and shame cheaters, note that it is usually a huge hassle to formally charge students with cheating. I know people who deal with this by giving exams that are hard to cheat on and really hard to pass without having done the assignments. The alternative involves a lot of interactions with the university bureaucracy for each case -- as it probably should.
Re: Texas college professor tries to flunk his whole class
#49Horwitz, who has taught management for two decades... What exactly did he teach? It doesn't appear he learned very much about "management". Imagine a manager firing all 30 of his direct reports. What would you suspect was the problem, the manager or the workers? Same thing here. Perhaps Professor Horwitz should get a real management job. Then he'd learn how easy he'd had it for the past two decades.
"What would you suspect was the problem, the manager or the workers?"
Well, "the manager's manager" is an option here too. "Mismatch of responsibility and authority" is certainly a fundamental problem that schools at all levels from kindergarten to university have been struggling with as our society goes through its social changes, as we keep loading responsibilities on to the teachers even as we strip away their authority.
Whether or not this is the case, I don't know. As others have observed, there isn't anywhere near enough info to conclude anything here.
Re: Texas college professor tries to flunk his whole class
#50Earlier quoted context omitted.
Define cultured? Say you're an average European. Hop into your (rented) car and drive 4 hours in any linear direction? Who are you going to see? Chances are someone from a different culture and history and probably one who once warred with you. I jump in my car and drive 4 hours, I'm at my state capital. I drive another 4 hours, I'm in Georgia. America is a huge country. We were the EU before unioning was cool. The "…
> probably one who once warred with you On the other hand, in the US if I drive 4 hours south, I'm firmly in Confederate states.
You are, but you're still fundamentally in the US. The system of government is the same, the general ideas are the same. Heck, most of the people that fought in the South weren't really pro-slavery as anti-federalist. Anti-federalist isn't original to the those states, Jefferson, the 3rd president, was anti-federalist.
Even more to the point it was a civil war. Most Brits can drive around and find that. Heck, they might just have to cross the street for that.