<p>great story, tomofboston!</p>
<p>“220 students in this class”</p>
<p>This real joke is on the other 219 students (and their parents) who are only too eager to participate in this money for degree scam.</p>
<p>“I’m also puzzled as to why the Cornell gang (monydad, Marian) felt the need to come to Mr. Talbert’s defense unequivocally.”</p>
<p>I do not defend him unequivocally, I think he was a little over the top. What I do not do is condemn him unequivocally, as I think he was provoked and was right to respond in some fashion.</p>
<p>This is only a Cornell thing in that I found the thread by searching the word “Cornell”. I do not think Cornell looks particularly better having immature, provocatively-yawning students vs. inappropriately ballistic professors, I’d say that’s about a draw either way. So that’s not the basis of my opinion. Nor that of the several completely unaffiliated posters who have expressed a similar view of it. By contrast most of the posters about this on the Cornell subforum evidently do not agree with me. However they are undergrads, not parents, so that part of the “gang” posted there and not here.</p>
<p>“No wonder, you guys look too stupid to be in my class.” </p>
<p>Funny he should have that opinion, I don’t think econ majors, upper level or not, would generally be considered obviously smarter than humanities students there. Ditto for its econ grad students. Its not like econ is considered any elite department, actually the humanities departments there are generally higher ranked FWIW.</p>
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How silly. He’s been there at least 9 years. If he is on a tenure track, he has tenure already by now.</p>
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<p>But he could be on term track instead…</p>
<p>American students tend to be very disrespectful in classrooms, from high school to college. They talk while in class, texting, surfing the net, coming to class late…Most teachers just put up with it because they feel powerless. I don’t blame the professor for getting upset because it is disrespectful to yawn so loudly over and over again. I have more respect for this professor because he actually had enough respect for himself and other students in the class to say something (do something) about it.</p>
<p>oldfort… agree completely</p>
<p>Have to stronly agree with oldfort. The student was doing it for attention. It’s that really annoying type of attention where the kid can disrupt everyone with an obnoxious yawn and then act like “what?”</p>
<p>I’ve seen this type of student in class, they tend to be very arrogant. They think they have the right to “express themselves” whenever they want, but they don’t “cross the line”. </p>
<p>The yawn is rude, plain and simple. The kid needed someone to yell at him because it is obvious that his parents didn’t.</p>
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<p>“I don’t really care, since I already know the material?” Really? </p>
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<p>Obviously it was disruptive.</p>
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Yes, really. The point is that I’m not the one who is supposedly interested in learning the material. If you are sitting there chatting then perhaps you are not really interested in learning it either, in which case I don’t know why you are taking the course, but I don’t have any particular inclination to try to teach anything to people who don’t wish to learn it. </p>
<p>Otherwise, perhaps I’d stand on the street corner with a large blackboard and pontificate on various formulas. :)</p>
<p>^^ Perfect! Soapbox science! Love it!! (I don’t know what you teach, but I chose science b/c I like the alliteration…)</p>
<p>While I agree with oldfort to a certain degree, I have also been dismayed at the dismal teaching skills of some of my professors. They are clearly experts in their field but also clearly have never spent a day learning classroom management. That should be a requirement.</p>
<p>Just a technical question: How did this get out? At first I thought it was someone with a good, steadied cell phone camera but then the view changed to the front. Was this released by someone in the IT dept when they were filming for people who couldn’t make the class?</p>
<p>pukmadkate - I do agree with you on the point of many professors do not have very good teaching skills. D1 certainly had her share of that, and she´s also had some great professors (and those classes are generally full).</p>
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<p>That doesn’t give a student permission to be rude.</p>
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<p>What about the other students in the class who are there to learn. They should not be subjected to rude and disruptive students and it is not their job to monitor that behavior. The professor has some responsibility for providing an environment for learning. He/She cannot simply say “I don’t care.”</p>
<p>This prof did not yell at the student, he yelled at the class and asked them to turn the yawner in. Very different than dealing with the individual. And even more important, he lost personal control, not the kind of role model I want at work for my kids.</p>
<p>The yawner needs dealing with, but I don’t think yelling is ever in order. I think one can be far more impactful when under control. I never yell at my kids, but they have learned discipline and respect.</p>
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Let me ask you - what would you have done in this situation (students are talking in class)? Or what have you done, assuming you have taught at the college level? I have had to have this little chat with several classes of students, and generally found it effective in cutting down on the problem - how is that NOT “providing an environment for learning?” if it works?</p>
<p>Having taught a variety of things over a period of nearly 12 years, I can tell you this: whatever you do, someone is going to think you are doing the wrong thing. You just have to do the best you can. </p>
<p>One time I had to TA for an intro physics course. I met with the students once a week to help with homework, problems, etc. Before the first meeting the primary instructor said to review the basic derivatives. In class I clearly stated “Dr. X has asked that we review some basic derivatives.” and we reviewed for 10 minutes or so. One of the students wrote in his instructor review: “This instructor is incompetent. On the first day she reviewed derivatives, this was not a math class and we already knew that stuff.” Where do you even go that?</p>
<p>He is one of the reasons why this semester is my last. Yeah!</p>
<p>^ Too bad you can’t review back: “Actually student is incompetent… I specifically stated Dr X asked us to review this. Apparently student needs to retest in English.”</p>
<p>I’m not sure, but Cornell’s tuition is around 40K? I think it’s rude for a professor to waste more than two minutes of class time for the 219 non-yawning students. It was a temper tantrum - he didn’t seem mad that the student was disrupting the learning of the other students; rather he seemed mad because he felt disrespected.</p>
<p>Aside from his encouraging students to rat on eachother, I don’t see what the big deal is. I have seen a LOT worse.</p>