Wednesday, December 4, 2013

"Guy In Philosophy Class Needs to Shut the Fuck Up."

This story (see below) from The Onion reminds me of a student in one of my classes who seems to think that the word "discourse" means anything he wants it to mean. I write down what he says because I'm not always clear what he means.

From his mouth today came these gems: "Hate crimes are irrelevant discourses of the oppressed," and "Misogyny is a discourse that I find very offensive." Last week, he said, "The discourse of college students sleeping in class probably makes you crazy," and "If I were a professor, my discourse would be to share my lecture notes online."

In the memorable words of Inigo Montoya: "You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means."

HANOVER, NH—According to students enrolled in professor Michael Rosenthal's Philosophy 101 course at Dartmouth College, that guy, Darrin Floen, the one who sits at the back of the class and acts like he's Aristotle, seriously needs to shut the fuck up.
His fellow students describe Floen's frequent comments as eager, interested, and incredibly annoying. "He thinks he knows about philosophy," freshman Duane Herring said. "But I hate his voice, and I hate the way he only half raises his hand, like he's so laid back. We're discussing ethics in a couple weeks, but I don't know if I can wait that long before deciding if it's morally wrong to pound his face in."
More.

5 comments:

  1. Hilarious. The pretension coupled with lack of clue reminds me of a guy I was in class with who kept saying "classicist" when he meant "classist."

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    1. Those darned "classicists." At least he didn't call all discrimination "racist." My students, regardless of if it's a class bias or a gender bias, call it "racism."

      They also confuse "feminine" with "feminist."

      At least those students aren't like the one one in this article who can't seem to shut up.

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    2. If this dude comes to my general-ed astronomy class and confuses "astronomer" for "astrologer," I will nail his dick to the floor. Come to think of it, that would be in order, regardless of what he confuses.

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  2. Professors who take too much pleasure in trashing down stupid students are a little suspect, in my opinion. Better to focus our unbridled contempt on stupid administrators, the nrule rather than the exception these days.

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  3. I've been teaching Philosophy 100 and 300 levels courses for 12 years. When one student dominates the discourse, that is the professor's fault.

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