Since I’m grading genetics exams this evening, a class that involves a tiny amount of math, I can understand where this response to a math problem comes from.
I’d be tempted to give partial credit for a creative answer, but since I’m one of those evil professors, I wouldn’t succumb.
Greta Munger is now a full professor. I think that means she is required to wear the black robes and funny hat full time now.
Here’s a tragic story: a teacher convicted.
The six-person jury Friday … convicted Amero, 40, of Windham of four counts of risk of injury to a minor, or impairing the morals of a child. It took them less than two hours to decide the verdict. She faces a sentence of up to 40 years in prison.
Her crime? A computer in her classroom got caught in a porn spam pop-up loop (you know what they are, especially if you’re using that awful MS Internet Explorer—windows automatically open to spam sites as fast as you can close them). It’s easily fixed by using a decent browser or resetting the computer or even yanking the cord out of the wall, but Amero was apparently not very skilled with a computer, and was flustered as well. And for that, she may serve a few years in prison.
It is the 21st century, after all — lack of expertise with a computer is a crime, here in the future.
Oh, hang on—she isn’t being punished for computer illiteracy, it’s for impairing the morals of a child. That is, a bunch of seventh graders.
I know seventh graders. I remember being one. Middle school kids are a bunch of confused, sneaky, dirty-minded little bastards, and it would take a lot more than punching up internet porn to impair their morals; I suspect a fair number of the kids in that classroom knew more about the computer than Ms Amero, had been peeking at easily available porn before and after this event, and some of them are probably snickering about sending a teacher up the river for something they do routinely.
It takes a real prude to think flashing nude pictures at a seventh grader is going to corrupt them.
Let’s assume, though, that the entire classroom was occupied by naive little angels, perfect children with tousled curls who say their prayers at night and have been chemically neutered by their parents to suppress those burgeoning hormones. Then what? Do they get turned into sex maniacs by exposure to a bare breast or crotch? That’s an awfully low opinion of children these jurors had, or perhaps they just assumed a greater fragility than I can imagine.
This is a case of insane anti-porn hysteria, a grossly uninformed jury, and incompetence—the school district had let their filtering software lapse, and the police hadn’t even bothered to check the computer for adware. I am appalled that such a trivial error would have the consequence of sending someone to prison for years. This is not justice, this is lunacy.
I suggest that if the jurors really need a scapegoat for the uncontrolled spread of internet porn and the existence of sloppy and easily hijacked software, that it would be more appropriate (and perhaps just as injust) to send Bill Gates to jail.
It’s that time when universities get on their knees and beg the state for continuing support (hey, isn’t that all the time?), and my colleague Pete Wyckoff gave some testimony at the Minnesota capitol the other day. It’s good stuff that summarizes the financial dilemma students are facing everywhere as tuition climbs and the government cuts back.
Well, obviously, the problem isn’t the “screwing up”, it’s that the teacher was caught, so you make that more difficult. In this case, the Kearney school district has decided to ban tape recorders in the classroom. That sounds smart.
It makes me wonder how many teachers other than David Paszkiewicz are peddling ignorant cant in Kearney classrooms, that they have to make a special effort to protect them from exposure.
Oh, and my students can tape my classes any time they want.
I only mention this because it infuriates the wingnuts and religious ravers, but if you go to my university’s main web page you might see an article about me (I say “might” because only 4 are shown at a time, and which 4 is random). It’s awfully hard to get across to the critics, but the university supports me despite not necessarily endorsing my every opinion, and despite individuals in the administration feeling a little uncomfortable with some of my views, because there is this principle of academic freedom—it’s part of the job of an academic to make people uncomfortable. If you want vacuous pablum, that’s what the right-wing think tanks are for.
I don’t visit the main page much, so I wouldn’t have noticed this except that Larry Moran brought it to my attention. I should have made sure the photo accompanying the article had been properly credited, with something like “Photo courtesy of Larry the Camera Guy” across the bottom.
The Little Professor has A Compendium of Professorial Magic that looks useful—I’m going to have to master these.
The list, though, is of low level spells. I think I really need an “Enchant Knowledge” area-effect spell that infuses all of the targets with mastery of the subject matter. It’s probably a ninth-level spell, I’m afraid, and I’m going to have to get more experience before I can handle it. (Knocking over creationists is probably analogous to fending off a kobold raid—tedious hack-and-slash that garners darned little experience, and they don’t even have any loot worth harvesting.)
Hey, I’m teaching a genetics class this term, and someone is taking one. I’m going to be spending part of my day setting up flies for an upcoming lab…this looks awfully familiar.
I was on the radio again this morning, this time to announce the upcoming Café Scientifique here in Morris, which was also announced on the university web page. Did you happen to tune in? Are you coming?
It’s going to be a fun one. The chemistry discipline will be putting on a show, with discussions and demonstrations of household chemistry.
Café Scientifique: Chemistry Style
A presentation by Joe Alia, Nancy Carpenter, Jenn Goodnough, Troy Goodnough, Ted Pappenfus and Jim Togeas.
Household Chemistry
Joe Alia: Joe’ll tell us what’s cooking in chemistry with the chemistry of spices.
Nancy Carpenter: What’s that smell?? Nancy tells us how chemistry is responsible for fragrances.
Jenn Goodnough: The chemistry of water. What does your water softener, RO system, Brita filter really do? What is the difference between deionized and distilled water?
Troy Goodnough: A brief discussion of some of the greatest chemistry advances, referencing the book Napoleon’s Buttons. Better living through chemistry…
Ted Pappenfus: The chemistry of beverages. Just try to make beer without chemistry. And where would your coffee be without caffeine?
Jim Togeas: From the realm of “don’t try this at home,” Jim will fill us in on some of his favorite experiments that were done throughout history.
Plus we’ll do a few demos and answer household chemistry questions from the audience.
That will be next Tuesday, 30 January, at 6:00 in the Common Cup Coffeehouse on Atlantic Avenue in downtown Morris. See? Now I’ve given you several days notice, plenty of time to get here, so even you readers in Addis Ababa and Alice Springs don’t have any excuse for failing to show up.
Sara at Orcinus has an excellent article on the UC/Calvary Chapel Christian School lawsuit, in which a Christian private school is suing the University of California system to require them to accept their dreck for credit. She’s right that the universities need to stand up for standards, but I do have some problems with her opening statement: it ignores some complexities.
