debate where it shouldn't be

[FireWolf238]

there are quite a few cases where fuss gets stired up when a teacher/professor says something controversial and someone complaines. this sets off the whole bullshit 1st ammendment law suits artillery.

Now, while i have no problems with a retard prof making retarded statements, i do believe that half of those instructors should be fired. here's why: in a philosophy class the instructor is paid to express their views in order to start pointless discussions on random subjects. a science/math/geography instructor is paid to teach the matarial and not express their views on any other subject.

with reference to current cases, since when is teaching geology involving debating how bush relates to hitler during class time. not lunch or other brake time but during class time when the teacher is supposed to be teaching geology and not showing just how big of an idiot he is.

......opinions and comments please

[FOBulous]

Teachers can get away with all kinds of crap. I even had to teach a class for a year when I was T.A. because my damn professor was too lazy to show up. The only way to get them booted out is to say you slept with them...

[Mechs]

Well I wouldn't say they should be fired. Thats a bit to harsh now. I would suspend them for a week or so, have them make a apology, and get on with life. But yeah I agree that if your teaching a class and you start debating on things that aren't even related with said class, then something must be done.

[ManiacLove]

I don't think a teacher should be fired for expressing their opinions, as long as they're not teaching them.


You can run off and say "Omg! It's a MATH CLASS! NOT A SUPER LIBERAL BUSH BASH FEST." But C'mon.. In class we talked about current events all the time. It's a way to get to know your teachers and students better, and interact. I remember many a time when a teacher would use pop culture to relate to a lesson.

[FireWolf238]

does having mock trials on the subject during class time. suffice the teaching requirement? in my book it does. as for off subject in general, in grade school i could care less, but in college students pay to learn what the class says the would, a day of lecture is ALOT of valuable time that could be either spent teaching the material or completely wasted.

[akitaka]

Teachers can get away with all kinds of crap. I even had to teach a class for a year when I was T.A. because my damn professor was too lazy to show up. The only way to get them booted out is to say you slept with them...
That would go amazingly well if it was proovable in a resume. Did you have to put your foot down often, or did the students know you well enough to cooperate? In any case, amen to you for being a saint.

Maniac: Tell me how long this "ice breaking" routine should go on for, then tell me how much of that time could have been used to give you more insight on what could have saved your grade. I like it when teachers can talk and discuss with you, and it's awesome when they can crack a joke every now and then, but that should be done sparingly and not be apparent in exam times.

In my history class, students get into debates all of the time. Any attempt to rerail the topic at hand would be put aside as soon as a student insisted on getting the teacher's opinion. I felt a little bad about the teacher since the students in particular wouldn't shut their traps, and do what they came to school for, and not use the class room as their myspace profile.

In the least, it helped me and a few good students learn from the book itself; but that didn't detract from the annoyance of lesser peers who could easily not show up for class and waste time.

I don't believe teachers should lose their jobs, but I do think that some reinforcement is needed; a la kicking students out if they understand that if they don't want to learn, they shouldn't be there in the first place.


And firewolf's comment on college being payed by you is crystal clear; and though you may not know it, the government spending is getting fucked minute by minute if poor students insist on wasting time.

[King Kong]

You have to understand the kind of relationship between the student and teacher. If the relationship is informal then the teacher will spill out some opinions that aren't related to the subject, but initiate a conversation with pupils. The teachers shouldn't be fired for that, although shocking statements such as "I masturbate over some of you" or "I love Hitler, I think he was a smart and erotic man" would be too extreme.
However the teacher can get too informal, as in date one of her/his students, which my friend can attest to. He was invited to a dinner at his teachers house where they both got into an intimate conversation which lead to snogging. Although there was no exchange of sex juice, I thought that was incredibly weird and the fact that my friend cared nothing about it made it worse.

[DesertLily]

I once had a teacher who went religion bashing, and would take any opportunity handed to her to remind everyone that she was an atheist and how great the evolution theory was or something.

This was my English intructor. And never ONCE did we read/write anything related to evolution. Or religion for that matter.

Kinda offended me that she was using class time when we were supposed to be learning about literature and stuff to rant about Christianity, especially considering that I'm Christian and a lot of what she said was kinda hurtful. But I didn't do or say anything about it, because I didn't think it was that big of a deal.

I think teachers should be allowed to voice their opinions on certain matters, but that first and foremost, they should focus on their course material and only voice their personal opinions when it is relevant to the material. I'm sick of hearing Bush bashing (no, I don't support him, but it's fucking annoying) in my everyday life, so I don't want to have to listen to my teacher yammering about him as well. I go to school to LEARN.

[Anders]

It just kills me when some idiot starts complaining about liberal biases in education. It's like it's the new witch hunt. It doesn't have to do with anything related to the class work, in fact the prof. could be one of the best in the department. I don't know what else to say except that some people seem to be fueled by their hatred of anyone who thinks differently than themselves.

If you really try to find a liberal bias in education, then you're probably going to find one. Aside from the idea that getting an education means learning how to think (something frowned upon by the republican party), many educators are liberal. Why else would a Ph.D in engineering or business even consider teaching when they could be making 6X more in the private sector? Also, if the object of the game is to make as much money as possible and compete to be number 1, then why bother teaching someone else that could later become competition for your job?
I believe that the main objective of a teacher in any subject is to help students learn how to survive in the real world. They teach you the mistakes of the past and apply them to current times so mistakes are spotted early and fixed right away.
Bush has and continues to make very poor decisions regarding all aspects of American policy. Why shouldn't teachers point out his mistakes? Maybe by seeing the effect of his mistakes first hand we can learn from them and mold a better future for ourselves and our children.

[DesertLily]

It just kills me when some idiot starts complaining about liberal biases in education. It's like it's the new witch hunt. It doesn't have to do with anything related to the class work, in fact the prof. could be one of the best in the department. I don't know what else to say except that some people seem to be fueled by their hatred of anyone who thinks differently than themselves.

If you really try to find a liberal bias in education, then you're probably going to find one. Aside from the idea that getting an education means learning how to think (something frowned upon by the republican party), many educators are liberal. Why else would a Ph.D in engineering or business even consider teaching when they could be making 6X more in the private sector? Also, if the object of the game is to make as much money as possible and compete to be number 1, then why bother teaching someone else that could later become competition for your job?
I believe that the main objective of a teacher in any subject is to help students learn how to survive in the real world. They teach you the mistakes of the past and apply them to current times so mistakes are spotted early and fixed right away.
Bush has and continues to make very poor decisions regarding all aspects of American policy. Why shouldn't teachers point out his mistakes? Maybe by seeing the effect of his mistakes first hand we can learn from them and mold a better future for ourselves and our children.
I'm not complaining about liberal biases. And I'm all for debating and learning to THINK about things, as you say. But having someone just stand in front of the classroom and bitching? That's not teaching you to think, it's someone standing there relaying information or opinions that you already know, and have already heard. I already KNOW Bush sucks, I've heard it millions of times already. When there is no new information, and it's not even remotely relevant to class material, then how is that helping us think? Honestly?

It would be JUST as annoying hearing someone with a conservative bias bitching. It's just that in Chicago, there aren't any teachers with conservative biases, so I don't really have any experience with that. I DID have a friend who was extremely conservative, however, and it would drive me up the wall when he started going on and on about how good Bush is or something, as that was complete shit too. However, he was not a teacher, and I wasn't required to sit there for two hours and listen to it. There's a difference between paying $1000 for a class where you don't learn anything, and being stuck in a boring conversation.