Re: Devastating News

En réponse à David Peterson <DigitalScream@...>:

>
>     In a word, yes.  There have been problems with student-run classes
> in the
> past.  One example is a class that somehow got started on the TV show
> Party
> of Five, which, for the benefit of those who don't watch or don't have
> access
> to American TV, was essentially a teen soap opera about five kids
> whose
> parents are killed, or something, and rather than having them live with
> a
> relative, they decide to let them live in the house on their own.
> What
> happened in the class was that the "students" would gather every week
> and use
> a university television to watch the show; that was it.  Some professor
> just
> signed off on it.
Well, I don't see why it allows professors to treat those classes like that. In
that case, it's the professor's fault. S/he should have been a little more
implied in the class, rather than blindly sign. When somebody uses such a
system wrong, it's because s/he has been allowed to do that by somebody from
the system. That person should be taken responsible, as a professional fault.

I hate how people in power can manage to make other people under them pay for
their mistakes. I never accepted that in my cursus, which made some little
difficulties, but I always managed to succeed :)) . When I know I'm right,
nothing can stop me, not even a hierarchy :))) .

>
>     I can understand both positions.  What I think I'm going to do is
> let it
> pass.  I'll be sure to have a talk with the professor herself, but it
> won't
> go beyond that.  When I try to get the class up and running again next
> semester, I'm going to go to the linguistics department (which is
> probably
> where I should have gone in the first place).  That department is
> smaller,
> and I know everyone, so this kind of thing couldn't happen again.  (At
> least,
> so I hope.)
>
An idea: make them sign in front of you! :)))

  Nevertheless, there's no way you can ever get the people of
> Berkeley
> to agree to give up some freedom in exchange for accountability and
> security.
Which shows how short-sighted they are. Because of the inexistence of such a
regulating body (which is not a controlling body), students who want to run
such classes are at the mercy of the whims of the professors. Where's the
freedom there?

>     Anyway, I'm sure I'll have much more success next semester.
> Besides,
> I'll have even more time to prepare.
>
Does this mean we can send you new articles? :))) (I'm thinking that Tj'a-
ts'a~n, with its complicated morphology, its classes with optional sub-classes,
and its ideographic writing system, could be interesting for such a class :)) )

Christophe.

http://rainbow.conlang.free.fr

Take your life as a movie: do not let anybody else play the leading role.