So, am I the only one...

Congratulations · Post by **Congratulations** » Tue Sep 13, 2005 6:01 pm

...who is completely perplexed by this?

(Oh, WARNING, the subject matter is slightly mature, and may be inappropriate for those not yet in high school.)

http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2005/09/13/sex#121

emmline · Post by **emmline** » Tue Sep 13, 2005 6:23 pm

Are you perplexed by his dismissal, or by his teaching style?

Congratulations · Post by **Congratulations** » Tue Sep 13, 2005 6:24 pm

emmline wrote:Are you perplexed by his dismissal, or by his teaching style?

By his dismissal. Excuse my vagueness.

emmline · Post by **emmline** » Tue Sep 13, 2005 6:27 pm

I find for the most part, college students appreciate candor. Hard to judge from afar whether the charges in some of the girls' evaluations had merit, though. Political correctness can though, as we know, be dumb.

Congratulations · Post by **Congratulations** » Tue Sep 13, 2005 6:32 pm

emmline wrote:I find for the most part, college students appreciate candor. Hard to judge from afar whether the charges in some of the girls' evaluations had merit, though. Political correctness can though, as we know, be dumb.

My real problem is that this was an elective class about human sexuality, and the teacher was (as reported by several students) largely understanding and classy about the whole thing. I mean, they could have at least done the man the justice of an inquiry of some sort before labeling him a deviant.

Am I out of line?

Cynth · Post by **Cynth** » Tue Sep 13, 2005 6:33 pm

No. I am perplexed, although I suppose we could be perplexed in different ways.

I'd have to agree with people that were surprised that college credit was being given for this class myself. And it's in the Excercise Science Department? I don't know exactly what a college level Human Sexuality class should be talking about, but I would have thought it would be talking about more, oh, sociological issues or something like that---disease transmition, gender roles, society things. It could be a class worth college credit certainly. Or if it was to prepare students for teaching sex education in K-12 or something. But would "topiary work" be a topic in those schools?

One in which the professor accepts papers asking if "a little topiary work" should be done---that is ridiculous, to me. This sounds like an advanced "how-to" class---which is fine for some venue, sure, but college? For that sort of information you just sort of keep your eyes and ears open---I think most of us manage to get along on that sort of research.

Edited to say---You know, I really didn't consider the dismissal part. I'm sorry, since that was your point. I just found the content of the class to be intellectually not what I would have expected. I didn't consider the argument. I hadn't seen any of the responses when I wrote this or I would have seen I was going off on an odd tack. I would have certainly expected there to have been an inquiry, the possiblility of an appeal, etc. I would have thought he had tenure since he had been there so long. Even if you don''t, I believe at most schools there are very rigorous procedures that have to be gone through when trying to terminate someone. I am not certain we are getting the whole story I guess.

Congratulations · Post by **Congratulations** » Tue Sep 13, 2005 6:41 pm

I'm pretty sure that this "question and answer" type discussion was only a small part of the class. The article hints at this. I couldn't tell you what else the class covered, but the topic in general is one very important to college kids (and increasingly to high school kids, but that's a different topic). College is a time in your life when sex is at the forefront a lot of the time, and so a lot of questions come up. If nothing else, I think the class has value in that regard.

Cynth · Post by **Cynth** » Tue Sep 13, 2005 6:48 pm

Well, I'm long past that age and I'm sure things have changed. I certainly don't object to the discussions---let's say the Health Center had an anything goes discussion group about sex, I think that would be a very good thing. It is just the giving of credit if there isn't much challenge. But, perhaps just one little thing is being taken out of context here and it is a more substantial class.

Denny · Post by **Denny** » Tue Sep 13, 2005 6:55 pm

Some people should not be allowed to take some classes.

brianc · Post by **brianc** » Tue Sep 13, 2005 7:15 pm

Who dares call it "higher education" ?

djm · Post by **djm** » Tue Sep 13, 2005 7:26 pm

[quote="brainc]Who dares call it "higher education" ?[/quote]"
Depends on the position, doesn't it? Now, if we take the chandelier, for instance ....

djm

brianc · Post by **brianc** » Tue Sep 13, 2005 7:30 pm

djm wrote:[quote="brainc]Who dares call it "higher education" ?

"
Depends on the position, doesn't it? Now, if we take the chandelier, for instance ....

djm[/quote]

There go the insurance rates!

Caj · Post by **Caj** » Tue Sep 13, 2005 8:11 pm

What surprises me is that the prof was an adjunct for 17 years.

There are certain subjects that, if you are going to teach them, you're better off being tenured. This is one of them. Adjuncts have very little job security, and are easily let go for whatever reason a university wants. They are practically contractors.

Job security in the form of tenure is not easy to find, especially in certain departments. But then again, with 17 years and stellar reviews, I hope a prof could find some way to cement a level of job security above that of an average adjunct. E.g., people who will bat for you.

I'm guessing that the offended students had offended parents who said something about a lawsuit to a higher-level administrator that never heard of the course. Then an angry phone call to the department to "just do something about it."

Caj

Congratulations · Post by **Congratulations** » Tue Sep 13, 2005 8:23 pm

Caj wrote:What surprises me is that the prof was an adjunct for 17 years.

There are certain subjects that, if you are going to teach them, you're better off being tenured. This is one of them. Adjuncts have very little job security, and are easily let go for whatever reason a university wants. They are practically contractors.

Job security in the form of tenure is not easy to find, especially in certain departments. But then again, with 17 years and stellar reviews, I hope a prof could find some way to cement a level of job security above that of an average adjunct. E.g., people who will bat for you.

I'm guessing that the offended students had offended parents who said something about a lawsuit to a higher-level administrator that never heard of the course. Then an angry phone call to the department to "just do something about it."

Caj

Bureaucracy... :roll:

Caj · Post by **Caj** » Tue Sep 13, 2005 8:35 pm

Cynth wrote:No. I am perplexed, although I suppose we could be perplexed in different ways. I'd have to agree with people that were surprised that college credit was being given for this class myself.

The reason these places call themselves "universities" rather than "colleges" is that they teach darn near everything. Everything that profs are willing to teach, and that students are willing or required to take.

It is very easy to find courses in a university catalog that don't seem to "deserve" to be college courses to a skeptical public. For example, you can take golf. You can take a yoga class. You can get credit for marching band. These are common classes at many universities.

These may violate the public's image of a college course, but if the students are learning something it's fair game.

For that sort of information you just sort of keep your eyes and ears open---I think most of us manage to get along on that sort of research.

Well, we can say that about a lot of college courses. You can learn a lot on your own without help from an instructor.

But I think part of the motivation of teaching this type of class--in college or high school--is that is better to have it in a classroom than learned by word of mouth. You can learn some crazy things by word of mouth.

Caj