School hell.

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Indeed I have, nice try though. Grades are largely awarded for adhering to the instructor's viewpoint. Basically, you regurgitate what you are told. That is not learning.

Then why do the majority of professors criticize students for the fact that students only do what is asked and never bring up alternative assignements or view points in class?

One of the quickest ways to earn an A is to not regurgitate what you are told, but to go out and learn/work on your own, then let your professor know what you have done. One of the quickest ways to ensure that your professor has a low opinion of you is to nothing more than what is asked in class, and never add your own thought, opinion, or research to assignments and discussions, regardless of whether or not such thought is in agreement with the professors

Thats been my experience, its what you can expect at any elite school, and I wouldn't consider going to a university where such things weren't the norm. No one should.


*Its really quite funny how many students refuse to do anything more than regurgitate than complain about the professor not allowing for different viewpoints or alternative assignments. Like its the professors fault the student doesn't have the common sense to act like a college student rather than a general ed high school one. A professor should never have to specifically ask for alternative viewpoints as any college student should hav ethe intelligence to know to bring up such things unsolicited. If a professor does have to solicit opinions different than his own than you need change colleges asap because yours isn't worth attending

And I'm not referring to you above, but things I've seen personally.

I've even encountered students who spent weeks complaining to each other about how they had two major exams or projects due at the same time, and saying that shouldn't be allowed, etc but who never brought up the subject to the professor. And all it would take to immediately rectify the situation was asking either (or both) professors "Can we take the test on friday instead?/ Can we have a week longer on our paper."

"Then why do the majority of professors criticize students for the fact that students only do what is asked and never bring up alternative assignments or view points in class?"

And the answer is? Da daaaaa.............? Come on you gotta know this one Trees.

I can answer it in 6 words.

Opps, I can do it in 3.

I best stop thinking on this.

Last edited by postpaleo on 17 Aug 2008, 10:28 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Yes the answer is obvious. Colleges foster independent and outside of the box thinking, while criticizing those who refuse to do just that. After all, if all you are going to do is regurgitate there is no point in your going to college in the first place. You'll get just as a good of a quality education by working at McDonalds. Thats why professors hate students who refuse to act like college students and criticize such students in their class. Regurgitators are looked down upon (and made fun of quite frequently) by professors

Aside from your first semester as a freshman, and that's only if you went to a stupid high school that didn't teach you how to be a college student, there is no excuse for ever just regurgitating what the professor told you. Colleges are for adults, and its your responsibility to act like an adult. The professor should never have to say to you "hey idiot, you're in college. Act like it and start thinking for yourself."

Yes there are assignments and its your responsibility as an adult to add your own thoughts to those assignments and bring up your own, different opinions in class. If you can't do that than why the hell are you in college in the first place? Expecting the professor to specifically tell you to engage in something that common sense tells you its your job to do is ridiculous.

You ever notice how some students get invited to work on the professors projects and go to workshops that the professor never brought up in class. It has nothing to do with sucking up or offering the professor sex - it has everything to do with acting like a college student, and the primary goal of a college education is to teach people to think for themselves. So show your professor that you can think for yourself and you'll be amazed at how much better you are treated and how many more opportunities you are offered than if you show you aren't any more capable than a general ed student who is never willing to voice his own opinions, create assignments on his own, or counter the teachers speech - think I don't know what i'm talking about? Look at the grad picture I posted. Do I look like someone who had trouble with professors?

Last edited by Triangular_Trees on 17 Aug 2008, 10:34 pm, edited 2 times in total.

They can't think.

They don't know how to think.

High school, grade school and most all of college until you hit masters, doesn't need you to think. It's the major failure in the school system and the professors that criticize are missing the forest for the trees. That is their job.

We come almost prewired for it and that is part of the gift. It's like turn it off already, puleeeze.

Wtf is up with your general ed bashing?

Last edited by postpaleo on 17 Aug 2008, 10:36 pm, edited 1 time in total.

If your college does not require you to think and develop your own opinions in your pursuit for a bachelor's degree than you can rest assured that your degree will not be worth the paper its printed on - and the employers you will be applying to with that piece of paper will know exaclty that and respond accordingly. They can see the difference between people who go to crappy schools like that, and people who go to real colleges, in their employees


Any professor whose worth spending money on will base part of your grade on your willingness to do more than regurgitate. Any professor who believes he's teaching adults will not see any reason to have to state in that class because its common sense that college is there to teach you how to think on your own. Regurgitation is for people who don't intend to do anything more than menial jobs - this is what your boss says, does. college is for people who want to be the boss

You're still missing the point and you sound damned elitist to me. WTF is up with the general ed bashing?

They don't teach kids to think before they get to college.

I was the boss on projects and I had to retrain the kids coming out of college and it never matter what the piece of paper said or what school. They did not know anything other than school and most had no sense of blue collar work ethic to begin with.

Last edited by postpaleo on 17 Aug 2008, 10:42 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I'm not bashing general ed - I'm a general ed teacher.

Its well known that general ed is nothing more than regurgitation, wheras advanced academic classes require the individual thought and development that students are expected to engage on in their own college.

in general ed, you are told something, expected to learn it, and repeat it.

In advanced, academic, and college classes, you are told something, expected to learn more about it, develop your opinions about it,compare it to other things, even ones you haven't been taught about in that class, and bring up new ideas.

Someone who approaches college with a general ed mindset will struggle because they will never engage in the most important part of a college education and the one that is most expected of them by their professors. Someone who approaches colleges with an advanced academic track will be asked by their professors to work on publications outside the classroom because the independent thought and learning on your own is so highly valued in college settings

Last edited by Triangular_Trees on 17 Aug 2008, 10:43 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Yeah I junked the first reply and that was how long have you been teaching.

Bad attitude, do better. IQ has nothing to do with thinking.

Last edited by postpaleo on 17 Aug 2008, 10:44 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Since February 2005.

Which i gather is much longer than you have


I also would not be surprised to learn that I received much better grades in college than you did (at any rate you couldn't have gotten better grades than i did - thats impossible). As I said, you only need to look at my grad picture to see proof that I do have an idea of what professors like to see - do you think I could have earned all those honors if I didn't?

You're a babe in the woods, I retrained the kids coming out of college for years.

Now your next assignment is to figure out what a professor really means. because if you read above I never got through college.

Lol, sounds like the only thing you experienced was the people who refused to act like college students. Any college student who belongs in college will never just regurgitate (the exception being first semester freshman who have no clue what college is)

You weren't able to succeed in college, by your own admission, your criticisms of college are widely held by non-college students and widely disproved by college students. Fact is anyone who went to a half decent college would tell you that regurgitation is for general ed in high school not college. The reason you weren't able to succeed in college is because you refused to think outside of the box - college wasn't forcing you to think inside a box. It was forcing you to be intelligent enough to realize there is much more to an assignment that what was written, and you apparently failed at that. If you hadn't failed, you wouldn't be criticizing college for reasons that are wellknown to not apply to college today. The only thing is that your professor treats you as an adult so they don't say "hey idiot think outside of the box" they say "this is.." and expect you to have the intelligence to be able to form your own opinions and bring them up. Thats a huge part of the grade in most classes and being as you are in college you should never even have reason to expect that you should be told to form your own ideas, bring them up in class, and do your own unassigned research - thats a given

Oh and by the way, its only illness that is preventing me from being trained as a professor right now. No professor who is worth the name of Doctor will ever only want regurgitation, just as no college student with an ounce of intelligence would ever stay at a university that required students to solely engage in regurgitation and did not reward independent thinking.

College students are adults, and expected to act like adults. Regurgitation is for children, which is why college professors look down on those who do nothing more than complete the assignments with disgust

Last edited by Triangular_Trees on 17 Aug 2008, 10:56 pm, edited 1 time in total.

* One of us was unable to finish college, admitting to struggling with the work. The other holds two college degrees, graduating with a 4.0 both times.

If you had to pick, who do you think most people would believe when asked which one is better informed of what a college professor wants from their students?

Opps you blew your honors, you get an F, you didn't complete the assignment on time and the answer you hinted at was dead ass wrong. Look up professor for goodness sake, no degree required.

Oh gee, I dunno, Cambridge Uni in England specializing in Mid east arch on the masters level sound regurgitated? Like a longer list?