Reply to NYU Prof fired because his class was too hard

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Reminds me of one of my classes. None of the questions in the tests matched what was covered in the lectures or textbook. It was the most interesting class but grade wise it was the worst. To this day I remember her lectures, she was brilliant. And a terrible test writer. [/quote]

It's definitely possible that this is what's happening, just like it's possible that the kids are complaining about tests that are appropriately difficult. It's really hard to say without having taken the class and taken the exams, so it becomes this Rorschach test that reveals whatever you already think about what's happening in colleges, but nothing else.[/quote]

I’ve had experience with new teachers who haven’t yet calibrated their tests and give tests that almost no one can pass. In this case, it’s a professor who is giving the same tests he has given for decades (and allegedly tried to make them easier). Nothing has changed but the students. [/quote]

It's possible, but we had an experienced professor when I was in school who taught and then had every single student fail the standardized university exam (it was a language class). The same students passed the exam after another course with a different teacher (and being exposed to the material twice, obviously), sometimes these things happen.[/quote]

You can fire your employees when they are not doing their job.

Do you want students to learn if somebody is smart but can’t do their job, you give them a break and don’t fire them?

You mean, after they took the course twice, they passed?  Not a very useful example.

The article says many students wrote letters defending the professor.  The complaints seem to be from those who are mad that he didn’t make them feel better about failing.

Zacharia Benslimane, a teaching assistant in the problem-solving section of the course, defended Dr. Jones in an email to university officials.

“I think this petition was written more out of unhappiness with exam scores than an actual feeling of being treated unfairly,” wrote Mr. Benslimane, now a Ph.D. student at Harvard. “I have noticed that many of the students who consistently complained about the class did not use the resources we afforded to them.”

Ryan Xue, who took the course, said he found Dr. Jones both likable and inspiring.

“This is a big lecture course, and it also has the reputation of being a weed-out class,” said Mr. Xue, who has transferred and is now a junior at Brown. “So there are people who will not get the best grades. Some of the comments might have been very heavily influenced by what grade students have gotten.”

Other students, though, seemed shellshocked from the experience. In interviews, several of them said that Dr. Jones was keen to help students who asked questions, but that he could also be sarcastic and downbeat about the class’s poor performance.[/quote]

My 9th grader has a sarcastic teacher who bemoans the performance of the class. Yes, she sucks, but the fact is (and what my 14 year is learning) that some people suck and the thing to do is figure out how to do your best despite it. [/quote]

Right?!? It will help your kid learn they can't quit when the people they are working with suck (if that's the case---I tend to think the prof is good and the issue is the students).  Can't quit your job just because your boss sucks, or at least not until you have another job in place
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