Teacher, just shut up!

Have you ever had a teacher who not only drained the learning life away from your soul, but at the same time, made herself look incredibly stupid - begging the question - "how did you get this job?" I have one of those such cases this semester, here at UNM, right within our own 'heralded' university. The fact that the course in question is but a 200 level course, makes no matter to me in this case. More so I am concerned with the governing body who approved her for such teaching duties. Believe me when I say, I am not the smartest man to have walked this earth. Not even close. However I would venture to say that I am one of the world's foremost experts on detecting BullShit. My English 219 class this semester has its gawdy, awful stench written all over it. With respect, I will detail the class' and its instructors failures. Let me begin.

1. We worked on resumes for 2 calender months. This class meets 3 times every week. 12 classes. 12 hours. 1 resume.

My belief is that if a college student, at a 4-year university, WHO rejected a certain number of applicants based on poor scholastic performance, cannot create a credible resume in less than 12 hours of school --- SHOULD NOT BE IN COLLEGE AT ALL. Go back to ITT Tech, or Webster Univeristy. The University of New Mexico should not be for you. Now, with that said, I believe that the students in this particular class are smart. They are intuitive. I think they feel the same as I do.

The teacher had us "re-designing" for 2 weeks. This would have been helpful if she were reciting elements of visual rhetoric - aiding us in our efforts. Sadly, though, she was not. She filled the class time: writing an outline on the board of the day's agenda - WORK ON RESUME. We worked on this resume in groups, individually, and on at least on 1 occasion - were given the day off to work on them at home "in comfort". I, personally, do not pay for at-home learning. Phoenix University has plenty of online courses. Maybe that's better for this teacher, and perhaps some of her students.

2. Her "lecture" consisted of sordid tales of her weekend in South Carolina (extended vacation actually - we missed a day of class for her trip).

Besides having NO educational value, her stories we random - uninventive - and sad. I would hate to be her age, looking at speedos walk up and down Hilton Head beach. Sorry hun, the geriatric ward is to the left. In all honesty, our class to date, consisting of roughly 32 classes held this semester so far, 12 were on a resume, and at least 1-3 were spent out of class because she cancelled it, and another 3 were wasted on student speakers - talking about their dream job. Useful time and money being spent? Not. At. All.

I mention this class and my hardships because I think that blogs such as these, and topics of teacher failures need to be shared. There is of course the infamous "post semester evaluation", which is random, and often shortened so the student can leave early. But these evaluations are a pathetic attempt at governing the teacher who we pay - trust - and take professional criticism from. I will, however, look long and hard into their professional backgrounds before taking anything they say with more than a grain of salt. For my current teacher, SAYS she has a PhD, but I googled her - and I can't find it anywhere.

Dan Guglielmo

This isn’t the class I registered for!


It’s happens to us all, and every semester it’s the same thing. We sit down to check our list of required classes, we get online and make a selection of what we think, are ideal classes, selecting all of them in perfect harmony with our lives and outside responsibilities. We print out our schedule and think ok, this is good, this will work. We go about the rest of the week feeling ready for the new term, excited were on tract and ahead of the game.

On Monday morning or when ever it is, you get to your new class rooms, find a seat in the perfect spot and the teacher hands out the class syllabi. This is so exciting, what will I be doing, and what will I be learning? As you look over the syllabus and the teacher reads aloud the focus of the class, you start to get this feeling that you have just entered a foreign country, or something resembling a really bad horror movie. You scan the class schedule and start counting the amount of assignments, the amount of reading, and then you try to recall what the course catalog said the class would be about, by this time your head is spinning, you know what must be done. But you wait and you tell yourself maybe it won’t be so bad, I’ll just see what my other classes are like and then I’ll decide.

Later that day you sit down out side under a nice tree looking over all five or six syllabus’s that you received. Great! Two classes are manageable, but these other three or four are just not what you expected, and you’re just not interested in the class material, or maybe the work load will not be at all possible. You have a job, or maybe kids and a job, or two jobs to pay for all these classes. You head to the computer lab to do that thing that must be done. Drop a class.

There is a solution to this problem, a simple solution actually, but one that isn’t taken very seriously by the faculty or the staff at most universities. Why not? We are we paying for a service aren’t we?

Think about this for a moment, you go to the restaurant and look over the menu and you know exactly what is being served with your entre. You go online to order a book and there before you is a review or a summary telling you the basic ideas contained and the amount of pages to be read, or maybe you go to the store and buy a computer, the contents are not missing from the outside of the box. No. You know exactly what you’re getting. And students have the right as patrons to know what they are getting before they pay for it.

There are lots of reasons that factually and staff does not want to implement this policy and I have posted some links at the bottom of my blog so you can see some of them, but I’m sure you will feel as I do that they are not at all valid reasons.

There is however a valid and simple solution and that is for the universities to provide a link to the current class syllabus on the registration pages so that students can decide before registering if it is what they want, expect, or can even handle.

People don’t often think of an education as a product. But it is. And you can buy a good product or you can a bad one. Students need to demand that universities provide them product information. Too much valuable time and many credit hours are wasted that otherwise wouldn’t because students are unaware of what they are purchasing.

Don’t you want to know what you’re paying for? Don’t you want to know that the English class you’re taking next term is going to teach you how to write a better argument like you thought it would instead of turning out to be a creative writing class? I know I sure do and as a student I am tired of having to drop classes that I paid good money for and then having to readjust my whole life, (or worse) have to keep a class that I know I’m not going to do as well in or struggle to get through.

I want to know what you think. This is our university and our education we are paying for. Please post and take a stand on the issue.

I would also love to hear the opinions about posting syllabi from any of the staff and faculty.
Thank you for reading, good luck next term and may all your classes be exactly what you thought they would be; or close.

LJ
Here are some links to other interesting articles on the subject if you are interested in doing further research.
http://www.popecenter.org/issues/article.html?id=2041

http://74.125.47.132/search?q=cache:OjH441BWuBoJ:scue.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/syllabi-online-policy-paper.pdf+getting+class+syllabus+before+registration&cd=2&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us

http://www.mycollegesuccessstory.com/

Animal Welfare

It was seven years ago that a small, pudgy, pit bull puppy came into our lives. She was crouched in the corner in a small kennel at the city pound. The employee told us that she had been brought in with 3 other dogs; two of which were her parents. The four dogs had been confiscated by the state in a protective custody case. I didn’t know exactly what that meant at the time but I quickly figured out that it was the label for a horrendous situation. There were numerous reports of domestic violence at the dogs’ previous residence and there were also strong allegations of dog fighting. The puppy, who came to be named Sadie, had fortunately been taken before her body had been subjected to the tremendous abuse and neglect that the owners had inflicted on her parents and the fourth dog.


The three adult dogs that had been confiscated along with Sadie were all severely malnourished; every rib could be counted underneath their dull coat. Their muscle tone had gradually disintegrated leaving behind weak, wobbly legs. Aside from these traits, the most evident and heartbreaking were the numerous scars on their faces. It was evident that the fur on their faces had been, at times, ripped off in chunks; bald spots and thick lines of scar tissue riddled the once beautiful faces. One of the dogs, Sadie’s father, had apparently been described as a “champion fighter” to witnesses; a good part of his pink nose was missing. The future was bleak for the three adult dogs at the time of Sadie’s adoption. Sadie’s mother and the third male dog, along with being severely malnourished, were found to have internal bleeding and also damage to many of their internal organs from being beaten by their previous owners. Due to the uncertainty that comes along with protective custody cases related to dog fighting, the staff at the city pound were uncertain of the adult dogs’ ability to be rehabilitated; euthinization was almost inevitable. Sadie came home with my family that day.


Fast forward to January of 2007. I began volunteering for the Animal Humane Association of New Mexico (AHANM) and Animal Protection of New Mexico. In the time that I have spent with these two organizations, I have found out that stories like Sadie’s are all too common in the city and state. Since AHANM is an animal shelter, abuse and neglect cases are a daily occurrence. It is at this organization where the rehabilitation of horrible abuse and neglect cases takes place. Depending on the degree of the situation that the animal came from, the re-socialization could take months. Many times I have sat in a kennel with a dog who has forgotten what it is like to have a friendly pat on the head. One case that is particularly memorable was that of Baby Boy. Baby Boy came to the shelter with a gunshot wound in his leg. The stout pit bull had a strong spirit, but the wound was physically wearing. It took months after his surgery to rehabilitate him. He had lost the trust that he once had in human beings. After countless hours of belly rubs and patience, Baby Boy was ready to find a true home.


The issues of animal rights and animal welfare are subjects that seem to take a backseat in most people’s minds. Current animal welfare regulations and laws are written in ways that leave a very faint voice for the voiceless. I often wonder why it is that society believes that animals should have less of a chance at humane treatment than we do. It is very rare that an individual is punished for any kind of animal cruelty. If, in the rare occasion they actually are charged, the sentence and punishment is usually insignificant and not taken seriously. Maybe it is because people are misinformed about the issue. Or, maybe people do not realize the seriousness of the abuse and neglect. Whatever the reason may be, citizens of Albuquerque need to start to correct the wrongs that society has deemed tolerable for so many years.

Should UNM Remain Dry?

Since 1984, the minimum age for purchasing alcohol in the United States has been 21. In fact, the USA is the only country in the Americas where 21 is the minimum. Even more interesting is that the purchase of alcohol is not strictly illegal, but any state that allows the sale of alcohol to those under the age of 21 receives a 10% cut in annual highway profits from the federal government. This pressure from congress is enough for all 50 states to comply to the “rule of 21”. The only exception is Puerto Rico, which accepts the 10% cut in funds. Different states have their own varying laws for the actual consumption of alcohol, as the National Minimum Drinking Age Act only applies to the acquisition of liquor. Even before the NMDAA was enforced, the limit was already set at 21 in a fair amount of states, with the others' limit at 18 or 19.

For the last 25 years Americans have debated on what the minimum drinking age should be. Over the years various organizations have risen in opposition to the ban, some citing it as unconstitutional and an infringement of state's rights as well as the rights of young adults. The National Youth Rights Association believes the limitations on drinking deny citizens between the ages of 18 and 20 the same rights as other adults. The most recent organization is the Amethyst Initiative, a group of college presidents calling for the reconsideration of drinking age laws in the U.S. Their argument is that the current limit of 21 is not working. The Amethyst Initiative's official website claims that the illegal drinking occurs off-campus, and the current abstinence-only policy is more dangerous than if the age was back at 18.

According to the Associated Press, 157 college-aged people (18-23) died from alcohol poisoning between 1999 and 2005. The NY Sun claims that 1,700 college students die in accidents related to alcohol as well. New Mexico on average ranks 32nd on a list of alcohol related fatalities (alcoholalert.com). However, the average fatality rate of Americans hardly changed after 1984. This lends credit to those arguing that at 18 adults are allowed to vote, serve jury duty and risk their lives in war, but aren't allowed to drink a beer. At the same time, the average fatality rate has been lowering from 46,000 in 1987 to 41,000 in 2007. Though it's debatable as to what has caused the decrease in deaths, the higher age requirement may be partly responsible. Regardless, teens continue to drink, even those under 18.

So far President Schmidly has refused to join the 135 college presidents who have signed the Amethyst Initiative. Along with the fact that a smoking ban is being seriously considered, it looks like it will be a long time before Schmidly's mind changes. Even if the drinking age were to be lowered, does that change the idea that UNM should remain a dry campus? This is where I disagree with the presidents on the Amethyst Initiative. Although one can argue alcohol is acceptable in dorms and fraternity/sorority houses, it doesn't really belong on campus. Places like Zimmerman library, classrooms and the duck pond are much more public and socially unacceptable to drink. Nevertheless, the Amethyst Initiative's main goal is to fix the problem of 21 not working in society. They encourage responsibility foremost, something everyone can benefit from in every aspect of life.