A female prof just posted the following excerpt from a student evaluation:

I learned so much about research and writing in this class. However I have to say that as a man, I found her big boobs to be slightly distracting during lectures. Now I don’t mean this in a bad way, cause what straight man doesn’t love big boobs? Professor [comebacknikki] taught me that I should say things directly and assertively in order make a point, but to not be offensive. I hope this isn’t offensive, but rather an indication of my appreciation. I wouldn’t write this if it weren’t anonymous, so I guess I’m not as assertive as I think, but still… big boobs are both hot and distracting, FWIW

Would you like to guess what the post’s title is? It’s “Thanks… I think?” The comments people left for the post are of the “Congrats!” variety.

It’s sad to see that some people are so insecure and attention-starved that they would take something this offensive and disgusting as a compliment.

I hope my readers know me well enough by now to realize that it isn’t the reference to “hot big boobs” that I find offensive. If the student just stopped at that, I’d simply dismiss him as a stupid idiot. What I find really egregious is the attempt to manipulate a prof into accepting this piece of ridiculousness as an example of honest self-expression that this very teacher had tried to promote in the classroom.

It isn’t a good sign when students attempt to manipulate a prof in such a blatant way. If you can’t make yourself even marginally respected in the classroom, why teach at all? When students start to ridicule you in such a direct way, it’s a sign you should reevaluate your entire teaching philosophy.

Has anybody heard of the website myedu.com? A colleague just mailed us a link to it and I’m completely creeped out by it. The website claims to provide grade averages for courses at pretty much every university in existence. How does it get access to grades, exactly? Does anybody know?

The colleague who sent out the link says that the grades in his courses are reflected correctly. I looked at my courses and the grades don’t look like my grades. It’s hard to say, though, because the website doesn’t specify which semesters of instruction are included. I also have no idea why some of my courses as opposed to others got on the list. The frequency with which I offer the course or the number of students that enroll in it don’t seem to be the decisive factors.

Does anybody have any idea how this website works and where it is supposed to be getting the grades? The U of Texas apparently just hands over the grades to that website (well, it’s Texas, what do you expect?). Do all universities now do that?

I’m a tough grader and I hand out Fs like candy. I’m not worried that students will stop taking my courses after consulting this stupid website but I’m wondering why universities would want to hand over the data about the grades to some shady organizations that can’t be trusted to be even marginally decent about what they do with that information.