Louisiana State University Professor Booted: Course Too Hard

http://wmbriggs.com/blog/?p=2415 ^ | William M. Briggs

[mattstat]

I have long predicted that as the proportion of high school graduates attending college increases, the classes offered at colleges would have to become easier. If they did not, then the proportion of students failing courses would increase to intolerable levels.

This prediction was correct. As proof, I offer you the story of Dominique Homberger, who tried teaching Biology 1001, “a large introductory course for nonscience majors at Louisiana State University at Baton Rouge.” A lot of kids flunked her first exam. And then a lot failed her second exam. In the end, about one out five students dropped out of her course.

Get it? Students were receiving bad grades! Grades that would decide their very future and control their fate. Horror!

The Dean, Kevin Carman, flew (well, walked vigorously) to the rescue. He booted Homberger from the classroom and had Homberger’s replacement artificially boost every kid’s grade.

“Don’t worry, poor children,” Dean Carman told the sobbing students, “Here are the As you deserve. You are not stupid. You are smart. Bad grades aren’t your fault. Remind your parents to send in your tuition checks.”

But, really—what excuse did LSU offer for this extraordinary act?...

[Pikachu_Dad]

LSU is not known for its academics.

[El Gato]

Why were these in the Civil Engineering department? They should be in Mechanical Engineering.

Different schools do it differently. At mine, statics and dynamics were two separate courses taught in the Engineering Mechanics, not ME, department. They also taught the Freshman drafting courses. (This was way before CAD).

[altair]

Note taking is a lost art. i really believe powerpoint has destroyed the current generations ability to listen and discern what is important and what isn’t.

That could be true, however, I've noticed the same behavior in PowerPoint users as I've noticed in Microsoft Word users - presentation comes first, content is kind of like an after thought. That makes a big difference.

I'm a big fan of TeX and its derivatives. You spend most of your time thinking about content, not about how it looks.

[Froggie]

We’ve already dumbed down medicine... what do you think PA’s and NP’s are? Fake doctors with suboptimal training!

[altair]

The Asian History course was taught by Professor Zach Baughn who had filled three blackboards with names and events before the class began.

Heh. My freshman calculus class was similar. It was taught by the man who wrote the text book and his style was to talk fast and fill chalkboard after chalkboard with equations. The large classrooms at CalTech at the time (early 1980s, I don't know what they're like now) had 3x3 movable boards. You pulled one down, pushed another one up, etc. and could see nine at a time.

I recall not being able to scribble down everything he wrote by the time he got past the 9th chalkboard and went back to the first and started erasing.

To encourage class attendance, he always included one question on every test that was only explained one day in class (class notes were allowed when taking tests) and was never touched on either in his textbook nor the homework. Fun, fun.

[El Gato]

At my college, thermo and fluids were in the ME department. But we EE’s thought it was somewhat unfair that we had to take the same thermo, fluids, statics and dynamics as the rest of the engineers, yet they got the dumbed down “Intro to EE’ course when we were taking the first two “real” EE courses (circuits).

[Perdogg]

statics and dynamics was considered a structural discipline.

[altair]

I warned them that a take-home test has to be tough. It was. I made them use the skills they had been taught in ways we hadn’t covered in class. And one question had an intentional error that they had to find a work-around for. Basically, welcome to the real world.

Muwahahaha. I wish there were more teachers like you. The basic rule in computer programming is to assume a fresh college grad doesn't know anything and train him on the job.

Part of the problem is that the number of projects that one will end up doing solo professionally can usually be counted on one hand.

Another part of the problem is that you really can't test something like calling up a student at 2am to have him diagnose a problem in his code. (I've been in that sort of position for a couple of years now and let me tell you, people who can work to get a system back online after being woken up are *valuable*).

[Eric in the Ozarks]

One event from the final exam has stayed with me over the years. A buddy in the class, sat at the back of the class, wearing his customary shades, but ready for the test.
Mr. Baughn said, “Mr. Powers; I see you have an “A” going in this class. I have no doubt that you will get an “A” in the final, so I will enter an “A” in my grade-book on your behalf if you will help me proctor the class.”

[1951Boomer]

Don’t worry, folks. One day maybe your brain surgeon will be a product of this enablement and acquiescence.

[devere]

“Don’t worry, folks. One day maybe your brain surgeon will be a product of this enablement and acquiescence.”

Speaking as someone with a child in medical school I can reassure you. The curriculum is very difficult, as it should be.

[Erasmus]

Where I did undergraduate work, an engineering/science departments would often have one or two “service” courses for non-majors in that department’s discipline.

I took beginner’s solid state physics under a Metallurgical Engineering number, and a number of programming and computer logic courses under Math department numbers. Years later, these particulare specialities were merged under the umbrella of EE/CS, now called “ECE” at my alma mater.

My brother, as an architecture student, took structures and electrics as service courses from other departments (CivE and EE, in this case, respectively).

In some cases, you’d wonder why a course was being offered by that department. This would typically be the result of historical accident.

Some course tracks were shared across disciplines, such as the first three Physics courses being shared by Physics and Engineering students.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

I have to agree but having a parent as an alum (who has donated to the university over the years since graduation) can also help gain entry to med school.

Staying in is, of course, another matter.

[altair]

Mr. Baughn said, “Mr. Powers; I see you have an “A” going in this class. I have no doubt that you will get an “A” in the final, so I will enter an “A” in my grade-book on your behalf if you will help me proctor the class.”

Whoosh (the sound of your text going over Altair's head) That may be tangentially related to the only time I ever cheated on a test.

It was 9th grade Algebra and I knew I was going to get an A and couldn't get an A+ from that teacher, so I had stopped caring. On one test day, he didn't show up and a substitute teacher administered the test. She wasn't exactly paying attention. The girl sitting behind whispered to me, "Altair, can you write down the answers and pass them to me?" She was hot and I was always the nerdy type, so I did it. The answer sheet I wrote made its way surreptitiously around the room to those who wanted to look at it. After class, I ran into my best friend who had that class later in the day and told him what happened. He asked me to give him the answers, so I did.

He wasn't very careful, or maybe the substitute was gaining a clue as to what was going on and when he tried to pass the sheet around the class, my next door neighbor ratted him out. He exercised his 4th amendment rights when he was questioned about the incident, well that's why he was my best friend. He was an A or should I work and try for an A+ student too, so it's not like he needed it personally.

Aftermath? I think the test still counted, but the results had to look funny. I aced the test with 100%. One girl paid me the highest compliment I ever received in Jr. High School. She said to me, "You wrote that answer sheet that was being passed around? I should have used it ..."

Beware of bored students forced to take classes beneath their level ...

Or, what's up with American school girls? If you paid any attention at all to nerdy types in school, we'd give you anything you want ...

[ThomasThomas]

Why do so many assume it is all the teacher’s fault for tests that are to hard or the students for being lazy. Maybe she is a crappy teacher who could not teach a class on operating a door knob.

While in college I have seen all three.

Teachers who used failing student to boost their ego.
Plenty of lazy students.
And one teacher that could not understand that just because he understood what he said dosen’t mean that someone might not.

One math teacher who could not put his really true genius in words.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

The same year, the same bright student got into a shoving match with a local bully at a bar called the Smokeshop. Bill drove home and retrieved a hunting knife he had received as a Christmas gift and returned to wait outside the bar.
The end result was Bill was sentenced to eight years in prison for manslaughter and spent the remainder of his life as a auto body repairman.

[driftless2]

Atttrition rates are high for certain college classes. I took a stats course in college that started with about seventy students and ended with less than one third of that number. Stats is not considered to be hard math, but it is for many college students. I managed to finish with a borderline B of which I was very happy to get because the material was tougher than other classes I got As in. Tough classes test (no pun intended) your mettle.

[Ditto]

This was in the mid 1990s and I was taking core accounting courses by extension at the request of my (now late) Father who had always wanted me to get a CPA. This course had 3 tests + homework for grading. This course was the exact equivalent of the EE course I described above. On the first test the whole class got a shock. I got something like a 79 (out of 100) and that was one of the highest scores in the class.

I had a similar experience in a 200 level accounting class. The prof was an old, cranky tenured guy who decided to teach things his way mixed with various rants against business in general that ate up half the class time. On the first test, I scored something around a 65%, and I had the highest grade in the class. And I was carrying a 4.0 at that point.

The problem was that this guy was teaching it his way, while the school had standardized accounting tests. Most of the material on the first test was never covered in class or in any of the assignments. We were all blindsided.

I that case, the administration did step in and replaced the instructor after a bunch of us complained -- especially the people who were headed for CPAs. The replacement instructor was able to get us back up to speed.

[altair]

The end result was Bill was sentenced to eight years in prison for manslaughter and spent the remainder of his life as a auto body repairman.

At least he got a job? Ouch.

Changing the subject:

Undertaker (calling) Fred!
Fred's voice Yeah?
Undertaker I think we've got an eater.
Man What?

Another undertaker pokes his head round the door
Fred Right, I'll get the oven on. (goes off)
Man Er, excuse me, um, are you suggesting eating my mother?
Undertaker Er ... Yeah. Not raw. Cooked.
Man What?
Undertaker Yes, roasted with a few french fries, broccoli, horseradish sauce ...
Man Well, I do feel a bit peckish.

[1951Boomer]

You’re right. I’m from a family of physicians and nurses, all of whom did not whine like babies because of the difficulty of a course. And as someone who HAD brain surgery, I was reassured to know my surgeon had survived the weeding-out process.