Saturday, May 19, 2018

Vox Popoli: The Great Dumbing-Down: Graduate School edition


More evidence that a college degree is literally worse than useless:

I am an instructor at a [university you would immediately recognize]. The director of the program is encouraging the entire faculty to alter their own teaching methods, based on an article that discusses how a professor at [another well-known university] found that she could improve the grades of her minority students through “inclusive teaching.”  By this she meant creating mandatory worksheets for students to fill out during each lecture (to "teach students how to take notes”), guided reading assignments, required class participation, online quizzes to check their progress,etc.  Basically all the busy work that everyone with an IQ over 95 hated in high school. The article was about implementing this regime in an undergraduate program, which is pathetic enough.   My [spouse] is being encouraged to use it in graduate level courses.  This is in a program that is considered to be extremely selective.

I always find it amusing when people expect me to show deference on the basis of someone's academic credentials. As far as I'm concerned, a PhD is a reliable indicator that you're dealing with a midwit.