Student: I Am Your Professor and No, I don’t “Work For You.” I am accountable to you however.

Workout notes: nothing yet. Something over lunch (swimming plus some squats?)

I’ll get to the the subject of the post’s title at the very end.

Personal: Sometimes I get a kick out of reading other people’s blogs because I can relate to their experiences. One racewalking friend is coming back from an athletic injury, and the process is almost always long, slow, painful and frustrating. Yes, it gets longer when you get older.

Oh yes, her daughter said to her:

A funny kid story. Michelle said to me tonight: “Mommy, you have a big bottom!”. Um, yeah, kid, thanks.

Yes, my daughter told my wife that (when my daughter was 3-4 years old, I think). Yes, my wife really does have a big butt; the racewalker in question…really doesn’t. (photo)

Another friend is getting ready for a judged 50K racewalk; he is “feeling it” and is encouraged by a couple of excellent training sessions (here and here) Yes, in athletics, the sweetest thing is a good performance in competition (example of it here and here for me). But one of the sweet things is in a successful buildup; you start nailing your workouts and building that confidence; you just “know” that things are going to go very well! So, I take pleasure in seeing someone else go through that stage; it makes my own rehab a bit more tolerable.

Humor: I got at chuckle at this; my guess is that this was intentional.

see more Epic Fails

Haiti and Science Satellites are helping rescue workers to find the areas of greatest need in Haiti.

Speaking of Haiti: the Religious Right is just plain weird:

The Southern Baptist Convention’s Albert Mohler outdoes Pat Robertson by declaring that God does, in fact, hate Haiti in his blog post entitled “Does God Hate Haiti?” in which he explains that God is judging the nation, just as he judges every nation on Earth so that they may all come to know Jesus Christ:

In truth, it is hard not to describe the earthquake as a disaster of biblical proportions. It certainly looks as if the wrath of God has fallen upon the Caribbean nation. Add to this the fact that Haiti is well known for its history of religious syncretism — mixing elements of various faiths, including occult practices. The nation is known for voodoo, sorcery, and a Catholic tradition that has been greatly influenced by the occult. [...]

God does judge the nations — all of them — and God will judge the nations. His judgment is perfect and his justice is sure. He rules over all the nations and his sovereign will is demonstrated in the rising and falling of nations and empires and peoples … Does God hate Haiti? God hates sin, and will punish both individual sinners and nations … The earthquake in Haiti, like every other earthly disaster, reminds us that creation groans under the weight of sin and the judgment of God … In other words, the earthquake reminds us that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is the only real message of hope.

Like many, I am disgusted by this statement. But I am disgusted for a different reason than many are. If one claims to be a “Bible believing Christian”, well, the deity of the Bible does curse nations (for a variety of reasons) and causes terrible things to happen to them. So, what this whack job says is consistent with the Bible.

What disgusts me is the level of superstition here that both supporters and detractors find credible! Spirits or deities cause earthquakes? Oh please, this is beyond idiotic in this day and age.

To me, this type of statement is every bit as idiotic as blaming this earthquake on the fact that Zeus was upset.

Education Yes, the internet can be a bit positive, but it can extract an intellectual price. Yes, it can be fun to read internet articles; it is like having a magazine at your instant disposal. But I found myself thinking at a shallower and shallower level; that is why I’ve decided to force myself to read books; and I’ve done that!

Now for the title of this post An undergraduate whines that he isn’t permitted to text message during class. Well, it is his blog and he can whine about anything he wants (source).

But I’ll just take issue with this statement (made in a comment)

Believe it or not, you are employed by me in this situation. “Deal with it,”

Wrong! Think of it this way: when I swim, there is a lifeguard whose salary is paid for, in part, by the extra fees that we pay to use the new university gym. So is the lifeguard employed by me? No. The lifeguard is employed by the university (and the recreational department); how good of of a job he/she does is going to be judged by them. Sure, I have the right to give feedback, complain, etc. (but ours do an excellent job…that is an aside).

When I went to the Rams game and paid for a ticket, were the players and coach employed by me? No. They were employed by the team and its ownership. Sure I have the right to not come back, to not buy team gear, etc. But they don’t work for me.

The situation is similar here: the university employs me and if I do a bad job, they can fire me, reprimand me, etc. And yes, the students do get some right to feedback; they can write teaching evaluations, complain to the chair or to other administrative staff, etc. They also have the right to leave our college and go somewhere else. They do NOT have the right to tell me how to do my job; they are not qualified to do that.

Now, of course, I am accountable to the students. I need to be prepared to give them a good course, to patiently explain things, to be available for extra help, to make reasonable expectations of them, etc. But when I say that I am accountable to the students, I am accountable to them over the long term, meaning that they should leave my course having learned the material. My getting them to do the necessary work to learn will anger some of them from time to time, and my holding them accountable to standards will also anger some of them. But that is part of what I am paid to do. I am not paid to be friends with them. In short, I’d rather that they dislike me while in the course but learn rather than like me and not learn.

Of course, there are ways to get the same message across, and antagonizing them needlessly is stupid and pointless.

Note: in fairness to the student blogger: he has moderated his comments and has boldly allowed for criticism to be posted. He deserves credit for that.

I admit that I made a classless, stupid comment on his post, and that embarrasses me. I’ve apologized for that comment there and I’ll apologize for that here as well.

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