Here's hoping they don't read this
No matter what anyone says, it has become clearer to me than ever before that people with Phd's are... no smarter than anybody else.
Many of the students (and probably the majority of them in the future) in my classes are likely smarter (and more mature) than half of my professors.
Of course, I'm not stupid enough to name anyone in particular, but I'm just getting sick of the irrational, emotional and personal rants I hear in my Political Science classes.
This is why I only took History classes last year... for the sake of maintaining my sanity. (Requirements force me to take a certain number of classes outside of my major this year.)
I thought I would try to create some basic ground rules for Political Science professors.
1) Stop catering to what you believe to be the leftist (note "leftist" and not "liberal") prejudices of your students. It is so very annoying. Your students will respect you more if you try to be as objective and fair as possible. (As thankfully, most of my History professors are - even when they're leftists outside of the classroom) Maybe I'm being too specific here, but having the first two lectures of the class on American Government focused on "political failures" and specifically pointing to dozens of current examples of said "political failures" doesn't exactly allow us to take you seriously, especially when those "political failures" are largely examples of what are obvious expressions of the democratic will of the people. (Does it really require me to ask whether or not the topic of American government, the longest lasting form of democratic constitutional government in existence, requires more than the discussion of "political failures" in the course's first 2 lectures? Is the topic that superficial? Especially when nearly every one of the cited "political failures" can apply in any other country as well?)
2) Discussing the feelings of violence that come over you when you see President Bush on the television (and then when you seemingly wait for applause from your students immediately afterwards) doesn't allow us to take you seriously either.
3) Lavishing fawning praise on Marxists such as Noam Chomsky might endear you to a few students in the short term, but when they graduate and find jobs (that aren't as professors of political science), they won't really look back at you with much seriousness.
Ahh... mostly, I'm just sick of them all being so damn political. That's all.
Stop trying to push your agendas.
I know it's a political science class, but it is excruciating and embarrassing to watch some of them sometimes.
PS. Someone let me know in the comments if I should delete this post.
Many of the students (and probably the majority of them in the future) in my classes are likely smarter (and more mature) than half of my professors.
Of course, I'm not stupid enough to name anyone in particular, but I'm just getting sick of the irrational, emotional and personal rants I hear in my Political Science classes.
This is why I only took History classes last year... for the sake of maintaining my sanity. (Requirements force me to take a certain number of classes outside of my major this year.)
I thought I would try to create some basic ground rules for Political Science professors.
1) Stop catering to what you believe to be the leftist (note "leftist" and not "liberal") prejudices of your students. It is so very annoying. Your students will respect you more if you try to be as objective and fair as possible. (As thankfully, most of my History professors are - even when they're leftists outside of the classroom) Maybe I'm being too specific here, but having the first two lectures of the class on American Government focused on "political failures" and specifically pointing to dozens of current examples of said "political failures" doesn't exactly allow us to take you seriously, especially when those "political failures" are largely examples of what are obvious expressions of the democratic will of the people. (Does it really require me to ask whether or not the topic of American government, the longest lasting form of democratic constitutional government in existence, requires more than the discussion of "political failures" in the course's first 2 lectures? Is the topic that superficial? Especially when nearly every one of the cited "political failures" can apply in any other country as well?)
2) Discussing the feelings of violence that come over you when you see President Bush on the television (and then when you seemingly wait for applause from your students immediately afterwards) doesn't allow us to take you seriously either.
3) Lavishing fawning praise on Marxists such as Noam Chomsky might endear you to a few students in the short term, but when they graduate and find jobs (that aren't as professors of political science), they won't really look back at you with much seriousness.
Ahh... mostly, I'm just sick of them all being so damn political. That's all.
Stop trying to push your agendas.
I know it's a political science class, but it is excruciating and embarrassing to watch some of them sometimes.
PS. Someone let me know in the comments if I should delete this post.
posted by Japnaam Singh at
9:34 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home