Education, Sex, and the Adjunct Professor
A friend of mine posted an article this morning about a professor who ended up fired because of a minor disagreement that ballooned because of her inability to accept that she was wrong about something. Whether this professor was, in fact, a racist in sheep's clothing or just an idiot could be debated, but the fact that she basically blew the incident in question way out of proportion in a way that ended with her own firing begs the question of her mental stability.
Which brought to mind my own version of the crazy college professor.
I was attending Nassau Community College in New York after my 40+ hours of work each week. My area of study was computer programming with accounting. In the core curriculum there was a health requirement. At the time, there was a huge controversy going on over the Human Sexuality class there. (The only article I could find about it now is here: http://www.forerunner.com/forerunner/X0118_Textbook_Undermines_.html ) Of course, I felt the need to take the class. Mine was at night, with an adjunct professor, not the professors who taught the class during the day.
First day in and the professor is a white man, probably around 50 years old. He introduces himself and tells us the controversy really made him think about what the class should be about and he wasn't going to follow the curriculum that was in other classes.
What followed was 3+ months of in-class discussions, mostly about his sex life (he was single). There were no projects, no papers, no homework, and no tests. At the end of the semester, he based his grades on how much he thought we contributed to the discussion. Me, being my usual no-holds-barred self got an "A."
I wasn't surprised, though, when another student in the class hunted me down at the beginning of the next semester and asked me to sign a petition to have the professor removed. The class was nothing like it was supposed to be. Honestly, I got nothing out of it and was disappointed as well, "A" notwithstanding. I signed the petition. This was not a bunch of post-high-school teenagers. Most of the people in night classes were people who worked during the day and were older than me (I was 22 at the time).
I can't remember the details of all of the conversations we had. One stood out about him going to meet a woman in Washington DC and her inviting him to sleep with her and him turning her down. The only part of that I believed was the part about him going to Washington DC.
Besides be an adjunct professor at the college, he taught health and gym at a local high school. This disturbed me. Again, I can't remember the details from 30 years ago, but I remember having the feeling that I wouldn't want him having discussions about sex with a teenager of mine. I think the same people who organized the petition brought their concerns to the school district he worked for. Was that fair? I don't know. I'd maybe think differently if he was a history teacher or a math teacher. You're not putting him in a situation where he's having discussions about sex with students as part of the curriculum.
What happened from all of that, I don't know. I never saw the professor again on campus, but we could have just not been in the same place at the same time. Life went on.
I still do have that textbook somewhere, though. I bought it for the class and never tried to re-sell it.
Which brought to mind my own version of the crazy college professor.
I was attending Nassau Community College in New York after my 40+ hours of work each week. My area of study was computer programming with accounting. In the core curriculum there was a health requirement. At the time, there was a huge controversy going on over the Human Sexuality class there. (The only article I could find about it now is here: http://www.forerunner.com/forerunner/X0118_Textbook_Undermines_.html ) Of course, I felt the need to take the class. Mine was at night, with an adjunct professor, not the professors who taught the class during the day.
First day in and the professor is a white man, probably around 50 years old. He introduces himself and tells us the controversy really made him think about what the class should be about and he wasn't going to follow the curriculum that was in other classes.
What followed was 3+ months of in-class discussions, mostly about his sex life (he was single). There were no projects, no papers, no homework, and no tests. At the end of the semester, he based his grades on how much he thought we contributed to the discussion. Me, being my usual no-holds-barred self got an "A."
I wasn't surprised, though, when another student in the class hunted me down at the beginning of the next semester and asked me to sign a petition to have the professor removed. The class was nothing like it was supposed to be. Honestly, I got nothing out of it and was disappointed as well, "A" notwithstanding. I signed the petition. This was not a bunch of post-high-school teenagers. Most of the people in night classes were people who worked during the day and were older than me (I was 22 at the time).
I can't remember the details of all of the conversations we had. One stood out about him going to meet a woman in Washington DC and her inviting him to sleep with her and him turning her down. The only part of that I believed was the part about him going to Washington DC.
Besides be an adjunct professor at the college, he taught health and gym at a local high school. This disturbed me. Again, I can't remember the details from 30 years ago, but I remember having the feeling that I wouldn't want him having discussions about sex with a teenager of mine. I think the same people who organized the petition brought their concerns to the school district he worked for. Was that fair? I don't know. I'd maybe think differently if he was a history teacher or a math teacher. You're not putting him in a situation where he's having discussions about sex with students as part of the curriculum.
What happened from all of that, I don't know. I never saw the professor again on campus, but we could have just not been in the same place at the same time. Life went on.
I still do have that textbook somewhere, though. I bought it for the class and never tried to re-sell it.
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