I want to punch my ethics teacher. In the nads.

[BreweryYardRat]

Stupid bugger and his stupid 6 page, no block quotes paper on the difference between killing and letting die in physician-assisted deaths.

:mad: It's supposed to be a basic ethics class, not a higher-level hair-splitting class.

Edit, since I think pointing this out is important:

Worse is that the guy has been grading the response papers designed to lead up to this on a really nasty scale, and I'm thinking he's going to do the same on this. He grades on a 1-5 scale. So you can't get a 70%, or an 85%, or a 90%. It's 20%, 40%, 60%, 80%, or 100%. Nothing in between.

[hfojvt]

1. well, if you did, that might be

wrong.

When I was young, and my heart was an open book
I used to say 'live and let live'
but then this ever-changing world, in which we live in,
made me give it a try, and I say
'live and let die'

you've got a paper to write, a job to do
you've got to do it well
you've got to give the other fellow (expletive deleted)

[Hissyspit]

2. Damn those teachers for doing their jobs and making us think about things!

[BreweryYardRat]

3. I don't mind thinking. I want to be a prof myself.

Didya catch the edit?

[Hissyspit]

4. Yes. Thanks for being more specific.

End of semester project?

[BreweryYardRat]

10. Yeah.

25% of my grade. And worse is that the fucker has been grading the response papers designed to lead up to this on a really nasty scale, and I'm thinking he's going to do the same on this. He grades on a 1-5 scale. So you can't get a 70%, or an 85%, or a 90%. It's 20%, 40%, 60%, 80%, or 100%. Nothing in between.

[Maddy McCall]

26. If you want to be a prof, you need to learn from your profs.

First of all, the grading scale is required to be included on the syllabus.

So you were aware of the grading scale after the first day in class, when you were given the syllabus?

By staying in that class, you agreed to abide by the syllabus, right?

I sympathize with what you are going through...end of the semester "dead week" is no fun. But it's just one more hoop you'll have to jump through on your quest for a degree.

If you think that this is bad, just wait until you become a grad student.

[BreweryYardRat]

33. See, Maddy, that's the thing.

He posted the grading scale for the course, not the papers in the syllabus.

I'm hoping he sticks to a standard scale for this final paper, but I don't think it's likely.

[BikeWriter]

11. Freak'n A! If we'd been meant to think, there'd be no GOP!

[BreweryYardRat]

12. Didja read the thread?

Less snarky commentary until you do, please. :(

[BikeWriter]

13. No, but I read the post I replied to. If you don't want snarky...

...commentary this is no place to be.

[huskerlaw]

5. Unless you're in junior high...

what kind of lame-ass school do you go to that allows you to think that 6 pages is an unreasonable request?

And killing vs. letting die sounds pretty damn basic...and not the least bit hair-splitting...to me.

Quit bitching and do your homework.

:eyes:

[Name removed]

7. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Name removed]

9. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[oberliner]

6. Single or double spaced?

Any restrictions on font size/type?

[BreweryYardRat]

8. It's not really the length of the paper I'm bitching about.

Length isn't so much of a problem in most cases. On this topic, it just adds to the annoyance, though.

[Breeze54]

14. Thank

your lucky stars that you are even getting a college education and quit yer bitchin'!

Saturday, November 4, 2006

Cutbacks in Pell Grants unacceptable

http://www.telegram.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061104/NEWS/611040330/1020

Pell Grants are one of the largest sources of federal help for low-income college students, and the most valuable form of aid, because the money doesn’t have to be paid back. But the level of aid is increasingly out of sync with the level of need.

Last week, the College Board reported that Pell Grants fell last year, for the first time in six years. The cuts were about $100 a year per recipient, on average, and came on top of other miserliness. It’s been four years since Congress last increased the maximum annual Pell Grant — by a mere $50 — bringing the top grant for a student who has no parental support to $4,050. Meanwhile, college costs are up 35 percent from five years ago. … Bush administration officials have said repeatedly that the solution to the nation’s growing income inequality is more education. That’s a gross oversimplification, but if they really believed it — and cared about a remedy — would federal college aid be declining? As things stand, privatization of college lending is the administration goal that is being advanced. As government aid has declined, loans from banks and other private lenders have soared, climbing to 20 percent of all education borrowing last year The result is towering debt. The same bachelor’s degree will cost a student borrower far more than a student who can afford to pay. That’s not a path to greater equality.

The New York Times

You should be on your knee's thanking your higher power for this chance at a successful life!

How dare you complain while the less fortunate are dying in Iraq for the lack of student loans?

I have no sympathy for you.

Ethics? You need to be studying 24/7!

:grr:

[WhollyHeretic]

21. Why don't you freakin' relax

:crazy:

[Omphaloskepsis]

15. So, you have to bullshit 5.5 pages..

I had to do that a few times.. Six pages to answer a simple question that could be taken care of with a single paragraph. It does suck. Ignore the twits.

[BreweryYardRat]

17. Thank you.

Nice to see there's a few people who won't get all self-righteous. :hug:

And have I ever thanked you for that giant zip file of pics? ;)

[WritingIsMyReligion]

16. Damn, that sucks ass.

I hate teachers who do that. :grr:

Ignore the twits telling you what a selfish bastard you are. I daresay THEY wouldn't want to be in your place, writing a paper.

x( x( x(

[BreweryYardRat]

19. Thanks.

:hug:

Good to hear I can get sympathy from my fellow students. I'm not sure which sucks worse, the hair-splitting BS or the grading scale.

[billyskank]

18. Is it ethical to punch your ethics teacher in the nads?

:shrug:

[BreweryYardRat]

20. Depends on whether one can split hairs to justify it.

;)

[izzybeans]

24. Only if it is physician-assisted

;)

[flvegan]

22. Your experiences are telling the story.

At least to me, it seems.

This is an ethically basic question. However, when ethics get blindsided by dogma, religion, beliefs, opinion, etc, that's when it becomes a topic laden with issues and fisticuffs. For some in that class, it will be so cut-and-dried, that they won't even realize that this is a topic of major schism. You have a sense of foreboding. I know I would, and I'd look at the paper the same way. Frame it, set it up, knock it down.

Reading that might be better than a kick in the nads to him.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

23. i will distract you with an amusing story...there was a professor in my school who slept with

undergrads...guess what class he taught?

ethics.

the irony.

that said i think no matter what people say..a 6 page paper in philosophy is a difficult assignment.

[xmas74]

28. The professor at my school that slept w/

undergrads was a psych professor. He was known best for his human sexuality classes.

[Maddy McCall]

25. What's "higher level, hair splitting" about a six page paper?

Sounds like a cool topic.

:shrug:

[zingaro]

27. On a serious note...

I spent years slinging semantic bucketfuls in the philosophic trenches. Ethics was a favorite of mine and bioethics even moreso.

How are you angling this paper? What's your thesis? What have your previous papers had to say?

Sounds like this guy has a touch of Hoop-itis. He must have had a hard time in school, you know, and now he wants to hold those hoops way up high. I always loved those profs the most (groan).

[Maddy McCall]

30. Welcome to DU...

but I disagree with you about the hoops thing.

I think holding the hoops high is more about preserving the academic reputation of the university, as is demonstrated by the students who graduate, than it is about some sordid secret in the prof's past.

Six pages is nothing. The topic is easy.

In my classes, in freshman history, I require ten pages from my students. And I make them read BOOKS. :scared:

Welcome to DU, zingaro. :hi:

[zingaro]

32. Oh I agree.

Six pages would have been a walk in the park to me. We had little dialogue exercises that were far more exhaustive than a standard essay and those were always eight or ten pages per.

It might have been more of a challenge to edit down to six pages lol

As an undergrad, on an old Brother "word processor" for those of you who recall pre-PC days, I once lost a thirty-six page paper during a final edit reading. There were no restores back then and my little machine didn't have any sort of auto-save features. After I wept for five minutes, I rewrote the thing in a few hours and nailed an A. Pressure creates diamonds, after all.

And...

No! Not... BOOKS!! In a history class?! Oh, the torment. You'll ruin their eyes!

Thanks for the welcome. What are your students reading?

[Maddy McCall]

38. My 102 students have had to read...

primary-source documents and books. Lies my Teacher Told Me; Nickel and Dimed: On not getting by in America; Local People; Coming of Age in Mississippi; Lakota Woman; Grapes of Wrath, among others. I usually assign two books to freshman 102 classes.

My 101 classes read primary-source documents and books of their choosing to write papers--I require five books minimum on papers, and those books have to be approved by me. When I do assign books, it's stuff like Powhatan's World and Colonial Virginia; The Devil in the Shape of a Woman; Knights of Spain, Warriors of the Sun.

I limit the number of internet sources they can use on papers because I want them to go to the library and get their hands on books.

My World Civ classes have a primary-source reader that they must use to write papers. It includes everything from the Code of Hammurabi to the Communist Manifesto. This semester, their final paper is on terrorism, and will, among other requirements, compare an article by Steven Hadley (National Security advisor to Bush) and Bin Laden's Letter to America. It's going to be an interesting read for me--can't wait to get the papers and start grading. :D

[Kali]

29. Seems like an intersting topic to me. go to GD or the Religious forum and post it as as a subject

for discussion. Should generate at least 6 pages of material.:rofl:

[leftyladyfrommo]

31. Hey, just use the Church of England stuff - to just let terribly deformed

infants die instead of trying to keep them alive. And the media accused the church of "killing" the infants.

I think that might actually be a pretty interesting topic if you played around with it some.

[BreweryYardRat]

35. Can't.

Not allowed to use anything outside the book.

[leftyladyfrommo]

39. What book? The book of life?

Oh, push the envelope here. Academics love it.

[BreweryYardRat]

42. And I quote from the paper guidelines.

"Using only his article or others in this book show his justification for this position and explain its consequences."

[leftyladyfrommo]

40. What book? The book of life?

Oh, push the envelope here. Academics love it.

Don't listen to me. But I always pushed the boundaries - because I would only do ideas that interested me. If it didn't interest me I would twist it until it did. And I always did OK.

[trogdor]

34. First prize is a Cadillac Eldorado.

Second prize is a set of steak knives.
Third prize is an F.

God, that sucks.

[rug]

36. Why don't you just write six pages on why it is ethical, if not necessary, to kick him in the balls?

You'll feel better and there's no risk of criminal charges.

And if you do it right, you may get an A+.

For a starting point, his grading system is doing damage to a lot of students; he's aleady driven you to homicidal ideation. It is necessary for the good of all that he be stopped now.

Alternatively, you could argue whether, in his case, it is ethical to let him die. Then extrapolate from this individual to the world at large.

[BreweryYardRat]

37. Well, thank you for the laugh.

I needed that.

[Rabrrrrrr]

41. Sounds like a basic ethical question to me. And six pages is nothing.

Fascinating topic.

I feel your pain, and I used to get mad at just about every paper just for the sake of it interfering with my life, but I always knew it was for good cause, I was learning, and it was a good idea to write them.

I would say "Cool - I only need to do six pages!"

And then I would wonder if I could make argument enough in just six pages.

And I agree with you on the grading scale - that's crap. It's an A, a C, or fail. That's not good. One might even say that it is unethical.

[dysfunctional press]

43. wouldn't that be un-ethical...?

maybe you need to repeat the class.

[anarch]

44. your next assignment: 20 pages, single spaced, on the ethics of nad-punching

Topic: is it ever ethically acceptable to punch someone...in the nads?

[BreweryYardRat]

45. Can I just cite example situations for most of that, Prof?

I can think of plenty of cases where it's ethical.

[Nickster]

46. Hang in there my friend. Just wait til you get to the BIG papers, then you'll really be crying.

Last week I had to deliver a half hour talk on my 114 page research paper. 6 pages would be like a dream compared to that!:-)

That grading scale does suck. Does he allow you to turn in revisions? Maybe he just expects you to have it refined enough so that you should have no problem getting an A if you worked at it by the final draft.

[BreweryYardRat]

47. Nope. No revisions.

And I write 20-25 page stories for my creative writing class without breaking a sweat.

Sucks to hear about that research paper, though. Ouch. What's your major?

[Nickster]

48. Well of course you can write that much for your creative writing, that's something you want

to write about. I understand that.

My major was Accounting, that paper was my final paper of my final class for my BA. It was my senior capstone project. Just dying to find out what I got for the class. I felt that I knocked it out of the park, but you never know.

Now I have to find me a decent Master's program, thinking about certified fraud examiner.