Background:
I am in CEGEP (post-secondary education) in Social Science. We have compusory classes called Research Methods and Quantitative Methods. I have taken RM already. I am taking QM in order to graduate.
Now. To my teacher and the curriculum designer:
Fuck you hard for wasting my time!
I am a college student. Not a child. I have been wasting my time going to this class snce August and I really don’t wanna anymore. I know there are people who need you to go at a slower pace (Social isn’t exactly a program full of geniuses) but this is ridiculous!
Today we got the list of what is to be on the test next week. Our first test in over two months of “learning”. What is on it: (bolding not mine)
JUST LOOK AT IT!
Not only were all these items taught in RM (a prerequisite to this class) but they were all taught in grade 8! Every single one! Including how to do a bar chart, calculate the range (take the first and last number you dumbass) and know what the average is for fuck’s sake!
You don’t even teach things properly. If I was as dumb as some of the people in my class, I’d fail if you taught interquartile range one way, then did it another, then when asked about it, denied you ever did it the second way. We all noticed, lying isn’t gonna help!
Why do I bother? If I stayed home and read the Straight Dope I’d learn more. If I read the SDMB I would, too. If I stayed at home and contemplated my navel I would learn more.
So, I conclude:
Teach me something, fucker!
(apologies for the lack of creative flaming, I’m not terribly creative)
Could you run over that again? I must have missed something the first time.
Why do they call it an “independent” variable? How do you find an average if there are only two numbers? This is so hard!
FWIW, LaurAnge, even though it’s simple terminology, and even though you have to sit through the tedium multiple times, apparently some of your fellow students still won’t get it.
I helped my daughter categorize the elements of an experiment for one of her high school classes. We studied the worksheet, avoided the obvious (but incorrect) solution, thought it through and found the correct answer.
We did not score well. The obvious but incorrect answer was the one on the teacher’s answer sheet. (This was a worksheet from some published science package.) So not only did the teacher not know the correct answer, the author and publisher didn’t either. They had created the problem themselves and got it wrong. And of course the teacher wasn’t going to challenge the authority of the published data.
On the brighter side, my daughter was able to “correct” her work and get a better score and, more importantly, she learned that thinking for herself was the best method, even though everyone “knew” the right answer.
Up next: the alphabet! (Yes, folks, you’re not supposed to learn this until grad school, but I’m just going to let the secret out on a message board: there are some letters after Q!)
Jeez. That’s some stats course there, LaurAnge. Tell ya what. If there are any dopers in your vicinity, ask your teacher if you can have some friends also take the test, in another room or whatever. Or, better yet, just have them come in for it - I’m sure that kind of teacher would never notice new students.
Then, when the non-students make As on the test, you will be able to make the following points:
Complete strangers did well on this test.
It’s hard to think of anyone who can read, write, add, and subtract who wouldn’t do well on this test.
That is because what you’re teaching is routinely and clearly understood by high school students and hence not a major challenge even to those who have not had the benefit of your tuition.
Why don’t you teach something interesting, and if anyone doesn’t get it, we’ll work together. You can hold him down and I’ll phone the trash company to come take him away.
I feel oyur pain. I took a class called “Instructional Technology” which was listed as covering basic skill with MS Office and an intro to HTML.
The entire course consisted of designing “Web pages” in Powerpoint. Attendnece was mandatory, though the professor didn’t show up often. A student was her little bitch, took role.
When she was there, she would walk around and comment favoribly of people whose “web pages” included crowded backgrounds, exotic fonts, and (best of all) animations.
The best thing for Education would be eliminating educatation departments.
Well, OK, Miller, what I’ve decided to do is trust you guys with one of the ‘bonus letters’ - in addition to U, which you apparently already know - and see if you use it wisely. If you do, I’ll tell you the rest. But if I see these letters being abused - by, say, whole posts full of nothing else, or by them showing up in Wildest Bill’s posts - then I’ll know you’re not ready to handle the extra responsibility.
That said, here’s one of my favorites:
R
It comes right after Q and is useful in lots of phrases and words. Use it in good health and with good sense!
I’m thinking more and more often about rearranging my life so I can go back to school. Then I think about factors like this, and cringe at the thought.
A month into the class, the professor wrote “Theme” on the board and told us to split up into groups and identify the theme of one of the short stories we read. I thought he was kidding.
I’ve been able to do this since the fucking sixth grade!!! The higher courses they promised to let me into if I took this class sure as hell better be worth it.
Well, in College Writing (recquired course) we are learning…the difference between a noun and a verb! I shit you not, we are having grammar tests every week. Last week we covered…the writing process! Yes, she taught us how to brainstorm, write a rough draft, first draft, second draft, and final copy! Did we learn all of this in the fourth grade? Yes! Does it matter? Of course not!
9000/semester so I can learn the difference between a noun and a fucking verb. :rolleyes:
The truly scary part of this is that there are still many college students who do not know the difference between a noun and a verb. One can only hope that some of the students in the class I am a T.A. for will learn the distinction at some point in their lives.
They don’t think it’s fair if they get points taken off an essay for bad spelling, grammar, etc. because it’s an astronomy course. :rolleyes:
Primaflora, was that you in my Introduction to Macs class? That was about as much as we learned, also. I was bored out of my tree - I spent 1 1/2 hours out of a two hour class surfing the web after doing what was assigned by the instructor, each Tues. and Thurs. night for two months. The best part was when the instructor asked how everyone was doing, one woman whined that she couldn’t keep up with him, and could he go back over some stuff!! AAARRRGGGHHHHH!!!
(Engineer Don, those are some pretty good points you made there. I am trying to learn how to tread lightly, myself. It’s difficult, when people are so incredibly obtuse about such obvious stuff, but making someone feel stupid never helps in the long run. Even if it would feel really, really good. :))
Serenity now! I know it’s frustrating. I deal with higher-up in large companies that don’t seem to grasp the most basic concepts of my field. I understand, though, that not everyone is familiar with the technical stuff, and there are probably many aspects of their job I would have trouble with. No big deal. I’ll work on explaining it better next time.
What really tweeks me is that I am required to take classes in things like “dealing with diversity”, where they instruct us not to use racial or gender slurs when addressing coworkers or customers. Huh? Does anyone do this? I have difficulty believing that this is needed at all, and then someone will ask a question that boggles the mind, and I realize that yes, in some cases, it is needed. People can be incredibly stupid and insensitive when dealing with each other. What I don’t get is that how they do not get better with practice. Don’t they have friends and neighbors who are perhaps - people? Don’t they deal with other people everyday? Can they not notice when people are hurt, or angry, or offended? How could one not learn this unless they are a recluse? Morons.
Then the hypersensitive show up. “He called me “ma’am”, and I am not a hooker!” What? Some people are taught to refer to women as “ma’am”, as in “yes ma’am”, and it is a term of respect, not derogatory. I thought the military had people answer women officers this way, and that’s respectful. Tone of voice or inflection could change that, but are a long way from impling that you engage in prostitution, or the management thereof, not that there is anything wrong with prostitutes if you did (most of our senators are whores, deep down!) So don’t assume it’s offensive, or intended to be offensive until you talk with the person and give them a chance to explain.
I would go crazy in these classes, but now I tend to watch the instructor’s interaction with the pupils closely, and learn things there. Dealing with people effectively is a very valuable skill for most professions (unless you own your own business and don’t interact with customers). If you’ve got nothing else to learn in class, try to study it objectively and see if you can pick anything up. Think of it as an opportunity, not a waste of time. Also, recall what the slower people say, 'cause it is usually very funny.
HA! You spineless cowards, you! REAL wo/m/childr/en would have proven the worksheet wrong with independent sources and insisted on the highest possible score. I did it - you can too! Really, I swear - 6th grade science teachers will admit that the book is wrong if you insist long enough with documentation to back you up. THEY WILL ADMIT YOU ARE RIGHT! YOU CAN PREVAIL OVER IGNORANCE!
Hmmmm. Perhaps this has something to with why I never finished college… and why I work solo for the most part… and why people in other areas of the company are afraid of me (hey, people in MY department like me)… and why I never have to go to VIP meetings (definite benefit here, kids)…
Ya think?
Seriously, I empathize LaurAnge. I hate going to training classes, because I get so damn bored and annoyed with the idiots. Fortunately, almost everyone has Internet access these days, so I can happily Dope the day away while still obtaining the 45 minutes of valuable information imparted in the 8 hour class.