My political science teacher is plain stupid. There’s no way around it. He’s a drooling nincompoop. A few examples of his “facts” are in order here.
Reagan was shot with bullets intended to spin and cause more damage.
Er, no. Bullets spin naturally. That’s what rifling is for. The bullets he was shot with were intended to explode, but failed to. OK, a small thing, but there’s more.
General Schwartzkopf said “I am in charge here” after Reagan was shot.
No again. It was Alexander Haig. This one, again, is a small thing, but it is something that a teacher of politics/history should know.
It takes a Constitutional amendment to increase the size of the Cabinet.
No yet again. I challenge you to show me where in the Constitution it mentions the size of the Cabinet. I also challenge you to explain to me how the Department of Homeland Security could possibly have been made a Cabinet-level position in violation of this alleged requirement. My head hurts, but I must persevere so I can deliver this next whopper.
Bush screwed up when he was nominating Supreme Court justices, because if he had elevated a sitting Justice to Chief Justice he could have nominated two more people to the Court.
I kid you not. He said that. No, really.
I counted his mistakes today, and I stopped after about a half-hour when I reached ten. It only took me half the class to come up with two fistfuls of bullshit. Factual inaccuracies, incorrect procedures, misrepresentations of policy, etc. You name it, he’s pooched it. And this has gone on all semester. I don’t know what’s worse: not knowing the right answer, or being taught the wrong answer as fact by someone in authority who you have no reason to doubt.
But I know. And it’s driving me crazy. I could say that I only have four more classes with this guy, but it’s because of people like him that I’m in class with ignorance everywhere I go.
Get your facts straight, sir, or find another job. Preberably one that won’t damage the intelligence of impressionable students. Thank you.
As a Poli Sci major, your OP makes me shiver. As a person of relatively moderate intelligence, your OP makes me slam my head against the desk. Repeatedly.
Anywho, have you called the professor on it? Maybe bring your laptop, grab a cite, and say, “Uh, sir? It’s called the Congress, not the ‘Rotunda of Old Dudes’ as you suggested. Also, they are in fact elected- not selected by a magical dairy cow, as you also suggested.” I know it may not seem worth it considering that you only have a few classes left, but it may be worth a shot.
If the above isn’t a viable option though, I would perhaps speak to someone else in the department that you are familiar with (preferably someone higher up than the professor, like a Department Chair). Someone that can’t get the basic facts straight shouldn’t be teaching even a 101 class, let alone something higher up.
I was under the impression that the handgun used to shoot Reagan wouldn’t have had any rifling. Therefore, while the bullet might have had some spin on it, that spin would not have been caused by rifling.
I’ve selectively called Bullshit on some particularly egregious assertions, but I have to be careful. The other day he told us that to remove a Prime Minister a vote of No Confidence is required, but no vote is required to remove the President. I, of course, asked him if he was ignoring the initial vote to impeach in the House of Representatives and the removal vote in the Senate. Call me crazy, but aren’t those votes? Of course they are.
He says, in front of the class, that “it’s Friday and I don’t have to listen to you anyway”.
Yep. That’s what I thought, too.
I didn’t want to, but I believe I am going to have to skewer this guy on his course evaluation. That seems to be my last recourse without potentially causing myself trouble down the road.
Doors, I’m really sorry for your experience. Do you know if this guy is an adjunct or a fixed-term or tenure-track professor? As Diosa said before you should definitely talk to a senior faculty member, or, even better, the Dean or administrator that oversees that department or the Social Sciences. However, I don’t think you’ll get all that far on hearsay. I say you should record the lecture. It’s common practice and it will give you evidence if this guy is as bad as you say. I’d just make sure to sit in the front row and make sure that your recorder is obvious so that there can’t be any complaint about it being hidden.
As a general principle, i had always assumed that rifling was found only in rifles. But, of course, a quick search of my (considerable) experience watching Law and Order and other cop shows should have told me differently; after all, how else do the lands and grooves get on a handgun bullet if not from rifling?
I hope you are taking notes so you can bring it to the head of the department. After all, you will be talking to the head of the department anyway. After this prof gives you a bad grade because he’s unwilling to admit to himself that he’s an idiot, and you forced him to face that unfortunate reality.
You know, if i didn’t think you were an honest person, i’d call bullshit on that. I have friends and acquaintances who are professors and graduate students at universities worldwide, and not one of them would ever even conceive of speaking like that to a student. If that’s really what he said, you should complain about him to the Head of the Political Science Department, or the Dean.
CapnPitt, I’m assuming that you mean an audio recording
Wouldn’t the fact that lecture notes taken by the students constitute a written record and therefore is no longer be deemed hearsay, but fact? I can see that one person complaining would be taken with a grain of salt, but not say 10 or fifteen students.
Unless I misunderstand you, no. For instance, I’ve just written “user_hostile told me he was the Corsican gunman on the grassy knoll. I remember him because his hair was…perfect.” It’s no more a fact than if I said it, and both are equally bullshit (I hope…)