Althouse: "Call out a professor for being wrong."

July 23, 2010

"Call out a professor for being wrong."

#30 on "The Undergraduate Bucket List" for University of Wisconsin students.

32 comments:

Original Mike said...: "Call out a professor for being wrong."

Truth to power, baby!; 7/23/10, 8:10 AM
traditionalguy said...: Skinny dipping in Lake Mendota sounds like more fun. The Professors are having it hard enough teaching the learning disabled students.; 7/23/10, 8:18 AM
Pastafarian said...: What with all this drinking and frolicking and last-minute cramming, do they actually get any studying done?

I must be getting old. I know I sound like a sour old man, but this wasn't what my college experience was like.

A young lady that we know (she babysits and house-sits for us) goes to Kent State, and she's a Facebook buddy with my wife. She's a fairly successful student in what should be a pretty challenging major, and from her Facebook wall, it appears as though every weekend is a big beer party.

As an employer, I really don't know where the next generation of competent engineers is going to come from. They all think they're Bluto from Animal House.; 7/23/10, 8:53 AM
Big Mike said...: Why is #47 so far down the list?; 7/23/10, 9:03 AM
David said...: And then what do you do the second week?; 7/23/10, 9:06 AM
bagoh20 said...: That's what they call "hazard-filled"?

I would add: take a guy home that's twice your age. That's gutsy...and compassionate.; 7/23/10, 9:07 AM
MadisonMan said...: I like that Graduate in four years isn't on the list.

Maybe it's #51.; 7/23/10, 9:07 AM
bagoh20 said...: For bonus points, take him to the nude beach. Fearless!; 7/23/10, 9:09 AM
I'm Full of Soup said...: Do young people really make bucket lists? I am 58 and think I am too young for one.; 7/23/10, 9:09 AM
bagoh20 said...: Yea, I thought "bucket list" was stuff to do before you kick the bucket. It should include the possibility of a trip to jail.; 7/23/10, 9:11 AM
Sofa King said...: I've done this!

It was, I think, the only sociology class I took, sociology and crime or something like that. The adjunct teaching it was an obvious Marxist, and among his many claims, one of the most patently absurd was that employers killed far more people than so-called "violent criminals" did every year. A quick check of BLS and FBI statistics verified my instinct and I called him out on this.

To his credit, he said he would check the numbers and at the next class, admitted he made a mistake.; 7/23/10, 9:52 AM
I'm Full of Soup said...: Sofa:

If the adjunct had been sharp, he'd at least have claimed the stats don't count all the poor bartenders and wait staff who die of 2nd hand smoke and other made-up liberal kook shit like that.; 7/23/10, 10:21 AM
Trooper York said...: "traditionalguy said...
The Professors are having it hard enough teaching the learning disabled students

WTF! Albie Manzo goes to the Unversity of Wisconsin.

He must be their most distinguished student since Thorton Melon.; 7/23/10, 10:24 AM
Chad said...: Given how uncharitable Ms. Althouse was towards Shirley Sherrod and Ann's desire to be controversial, is it that far off when she will be asking us to be sympathetic towards her after being called out by her students?

How many of us will be as exacting towards her as she was towards Ms. Sherrod?

Ann, given your high standards towards others I would carefully measure my words if I was you. I suspect your post about Ms. Sherrod will be thrown back at you.; 7/23/10, 10:35 AM
Bob_R said...: I almost always work problems in real time, so I count on students catching mistakes. Helps keep them in the game.; 7/23/10, 10:37 AM
Original Mike said...: "Ann, given your high standards towards others I would carefully measure my words if I was you."

Shorter Phil: "Careful, lady!"; 7/23/10, 10:51 AM
Leland said...: Obama was a bad vote! Shame on you!

Done, now I can mark that off the list. Glad it didn't have any caveats about explaining how or why the professor was wrong.; 7/23/10, 10:55 AM
Ann Althouse said...: "is it that far off when she will be asking us to be sympathetic towards her after being called out by her students?"

You think I'd come whining on my blog if a student told me I was wrong? I challenge you to find a post out of my 20,000+ posts where I complained about anything that one of my students did. If you can find one -- and I don't thing there's even one -- I'm certain it's not me complaining that a student "called me out" for being wrong. Nor would I have any reason to complain if that ever happened. If I'm wrong and a student catches me, I say good catch and try to make something good out of it. If I think I'm not wrong, I discuss it with the class or something like that. It's not even a problem. It's a perfectly good thing. I want students to argue with me in class. Not arguing would be a problem!; 7/23/10, 11:08 AM
Ann Althouse said...: I'm tough. And so, by the way, is Shirley Sherrod.

Those of you who think she's fragile are wrong.; 7/23/10, 11:09 AM
Ann Althouse said...: "Given how uncharitable Ms. Althouse was towards Shirley Sherrod..."

Do you think Shirley Sherrod wants your charity?; 7/23/10, 11:10 AM
Fen said...: Huh? I did that just about every day when I was in college. Whats the big deal?

Oh yah, I forgot how totalitarian most campuses have become. Telling the PoliSci prof that no, Sen Byrd wont take the floor against Clinton during Impeachment ("for the sake of honor", he predicted) would have got me 3 months of sensitivity training.; 7/23/10, 11:17 AM
Fen said...: Phil: Given how uncharitable Ms. Althouse was towards Shirley Sherrod and -

Oh fuck off. Sherrod is a racist. And you are an enabler of bigotry.

You're just one of hundreds of losers thinking you can come here and browbeat Ann into posting only a narrative you agree with.

Go back to Journolist, Libtard.; 7/23/10, 11:19 AM
Original Mike said...: I often start out the semester telling my students that 10% of what I tell them is wrong. It's their job to figure out which 10% (because, clearly, I don't know).; 7/23/10, 11:32 AM
Chad said...: Ann and her conservative commenters are sure quick in labeling others "bigots."

Who are the race hustlers now?; 7/23/10, 11:37 AM
Unknown said...: No guts, no glory. I made myself quite annoying to some of my profs in my undergrad days. And yet I survived.

Ann Althouse said...

I'm tough. And so, by the way, is Shirley Sherrod.

In your case, I would say strong. You have the kind of compassion and sensitivity tough guys usually can't conceive of.

As for Mrs. Sherrod, I don't know about her, but she certainly knows how to work the system.; 7/23/10, 12:00 PM
virgil xenophon said...: No, fen, you've got it all wrong. It should be: F-YOU!, PISS OFF!! Let's conform to proper standards of etiquette and decorum here...; 7/23/10, 1:53 PM
Fen said...: Why do Libtards have an expectation of civility while insulting our intelligence with their bullshit spin?

Sometimes "fuck off" is the only response the propagandists deserve.; 7/23/10, 2:22 PM
Fen said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 7/23/10, 2:26 PM
Fen said...: Libtard: Ann and her conservative commenters are sure quick in labeling others "bigots."
Who are the race hustlers now?

You are.

And its pretty sad that you equate calling out Sherrod's racism with the race hustling Democrat Party, led by Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton.

And its no surprise that you want a minimize racism whenever your side gets busted.

Of course, we already know the only reason you voted for DHOTUS was because of his skin color. So don't think your "concern" carries any weight here.; 7/23/10, 2:27 PM
roesch-voltaire said...: A fun list put together I suspect by some bright students, but I don't know that I would focus on the use of "calling out for being wrong," which feeds into our argument culture that seems to demonize those we disagree with and features friction more than illumination. Why not call for a dialog with professors as well as other students to get them reexamine their assumptions-- that is what is suppose to happen in class as far as I am concerned.; 7/23/10, 3:11 PM
Phil 314 said...: Phil;
I guess a little confused in the whole "truth to power" thing.

Didn't the Obama administration fire Mrs. Sherrod?; 7/23/10, 6:11 PM
Phil 314 said...: Pasta;
You have yelled

GET OFF MY LAWN!!!

lately have you?; 7/23/10, 6:15 PM