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Subject: "Adventures in Education" Archived thread - Read only
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twipper
Member since Jan-8-03
279 posts		 Aug-15-13, 02:26 PM (EDT)
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"Adventures in Education"
 
   I've been an adjunct college instructor for the Wamego KS satellite branch of Highland Community College now since the Spring 1999 semester. Good grief, I forget how long I've been doing this until I write the date down.

In my time at Highland, I've taught everything from A&P to Child Developmental Psych. My Child Dev and Abbie Normal psych classes for this Fall semester got cancelled due to lack of enrollment.

This state of affairs worked out for the site director however as she had two of her biology instructors up and quit 2 weeks before classes start; she promptly begged me to take the evening section.

So here I sit, rewriting my lecture notes for Introductory College Biology (& lab), as I haven't covered a bio section since 2009. I was going through my old evaluations, checking the written comments for any valid complaints/suggestions and came across the administrative response to a student who had submitted a complaint about my teaching of said Spring 2009 college biology class; said student had complained about my emphasis on evolutionary theory throughout the course.

To paraphrase the administration's response: It's a biology course. It is TAUGHT from the standpoint of evolutionary theory.

On a vaguely related note, that same year I gave a seminar to a group of real estate agents in Hutchison KS on residential radiation exposures and the real estate industry. On the evaluation form, one of the attendees wrote, and I quote: "This class is a bunch of shit. I bet you believe in evolution, too."

Ah, the joys of being an educator in the U.S..

Brian


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Gryphonadmin
Charter Member
22433 posts		 Aug-15-13, 03:20 PM (EDT)
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1. "RE: Adventures in Education"
In response to message #0
 
   >So here I sit, rewriting my lecture notes for Introductory College
>Biology (& lab), as I haven't covered a bio section since 2009. I was
>going through my old evaluations, checking the written comments for
>any valid complaints/suggestions and came across the administrative
>response to a student who had submitted a complaint about my teaching
>of said Spring 2009 college biology class; said student had complained
>about my emphasis on evolutionary theory throughout the course.

Oh, man. Something about that cries out for the Denis Lawson as Dreadnought Foster response. "I congratulate you on your perspicacity, sir!"

>On a vaguely related note, that same year I gave a seminar to a group
>of real estate agents in Hutchison KS on residential radiation
>exposures and the real estate industry. On the evaluation form, one
>of the attendees wrote, and I quote: "This class is a bunch of shit.
>I bet you believe in evolution, too."

"Your job is a bunch of shit. I bet you see nothing preposterous in 'realtor' being a registered trademark."

... sorry, too soon? :)

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.


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The Traitor
Member since Feb-24-09
1198 posts		 Aug-18-13, 07:03 AM (EDT)
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2. "RE: Adventures in Education"
In response to message #0
 
   Say you'll teach it from a creationist standpoint if he can survive for a month with a pair of ferrets in his trousers. And be sure to duct-tape the legs shut.

Isn't sport fun?

---
"Yeah, I'm definitely going to hell/But I'll have all the best stories to tell" -- Frank Turner, The Ballad of Me and My Friends


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zwol
Member since Feb-24-12
299 posts		 Aug-18-13, 09:55 AM (EDT)
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3. "RE: Adventures in Education"
In response to message #0
 
   I TAed biology courses at UC San Diego for a couple years. It's a Gigantic State University, so naturally the students are all over the map politics-wise, and it's in San Diego County, which has unusually, er, polarized demographics, so I was expecting this to come up at least once. I used to try to head it off by starting the first lecture of each quarter with remarks to the effect that this class takes evolution as an accepted principle, and if you have a problem with that, I will be happy to discuss it, but ONLY in my office hours; we're not going to waste class time on it.

No one ever took me up on that.


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