By Professor Doom
I’m always
impressed by the bumblings of our leaders in higher ed, but I suppose I
shouldn’t be. These guys have Ph.D.s, research degrees, but never do research.
They soak up tons of money, but never seem to leave anything in the budget to
help with education. Finally, they have and use incredible power over what goes
on in the classroom, in education…but have never taught a course themselves.
On community
college campus, these guys have the most power because faculty there seldom
have any defense, and I know I hated how every semester I was told to cram some
new “initiative” down my student’s throats, and that I needed to show the
leader’s ideas were effective, or else.
That said, you can
certainly see these clowns in action on a university campus:
---I see
I’m pretty generous in calling them “leaders,” and I have to admit “bosses” is
more accurate. Nobody follows them because of their leadership, after all.
When giving
assignments to students, you generally give them some guidelines. Some aren’t
particularly easy to miss, e.g., “be sure to put your name on the paper,” but
some things you really don’t want students doing, and often, a simple warning
isn’t enough. So sometimes to emphasize instructions you might well hammer the
point home, eg, “DO NOT USE WIKIPEDIA AS A SOURCE,” (good advice for my
readers, incidentally. Infogalactic has many of the same topics covered, and
it’s often a great source of amusement compare the two’s information).
Yes, writing in
all caps is bad form, and looks like you’re shouting, but if you don’t do that,
and the student ignores the instructions, then if you dock points he’ll
complain to admin and say it’s your fault because you weren’t clear enough. Trust me, I’ve been
on the business end of such shenanigans enough times.
Faculty who write
in all caps can say “hey, I tried to emphasize it with all caps. Can’t we let
the student take some responsibility here?”
·
A memo sent out to Leeds Trinity staff said capitals
could 'scare them into failure'
How did higher ed
ever get so backwards that even so simple a faculty attempt to help the student
follow directions is now “scaring them into failure”?
It suggested that writing a word in caps could highlight the
'difficulty' of the assignment and therefore worry the students.
Wow. Such a
confusion of ideas could only come from bosses leaders who’ve never
taught a course in their lives. It’s a shame faculty are forced to heed the
“wisdom” of these leaders.
The
lecturer at the university told the outlet that despite the intelligence of
their students they feel that they are fighting against the education system
who want to treat them like children.
Adding:
'We are not doing our students any favours with this kind of nonsense.'
Gosh, “the
lecturer” didn’t want to give his name as he dared criticize what the boss
said? I know, I’m in no position to cast judgment, and I’m not…I just want to
reinforce that this is what higher “education” is on campus: whatever admin
says it is, delivered by a thoroughly cowed faculty.
Bottom line,
higher education today is presented as “job training,” to get a high paying job,
even. If the students are so coddled that even the very gentle yelling of ALL
CAPS is deemed too frightening for them, how are they ever going to deal with
an actual boss in the real world?
It’s not a
question the bosses in higher ed will ever answer, both because nobody is in a
position to put the question to them, and because they honestly don’t care.
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