I usually enjoy The Last Psychiatrist’s blog but his post on the Harvard cheating scandal is bizarrely bad. Maybe we could all agree not to psychoanalyze other people’s patients and not to police other people’s syllabi. Oh, what a beautiful world would that be!
Here is a small excerpt from the offending post:
Here’s what you’re not allowed to do: ask a basic question, “Do interest groups make Congress more or less representative as an institution?” and then threaten that “the response will be judged on how well it draws from the course materials to make an argument.” NO. You could evaluate the answer on its merits or the rigor of the thinking, but whether and how it draws on the course materials is exactly what you do not want— it facilitates the grading of the essays, sure, keeps everything inside the gates, but it derails learning.
I also put similar warnings in my exams and let me explain to you why. It has nothing to do with the ease of grading or “keeping everything inside the gates”, whatever that even means. The reason why I started to specify that the exam responses have to draw on the course materials is simple: I’m sick to death of students responding to a question about the consequences of the Spanish Civil War with something like, “As my godmother always says. . .” followed with a string of intensely obnoxious platitudes that are in no way related to the Spanish Civil War.
Or take this student who was supposed to write an essay about immigration to and from Mexico. She Googled the word “immigration”, found some painfully racist website, and handed in a collection of quotes from that website which told me how immigrants all have AIDS and come to the US to receive free healthcare. I know I totally derailed the important process of learning from racist online sources when I told this student to turn to respectable materials we’d covered in class. This makes me a total enemy of the freedom of thought.
I’ll tell you more. I specify in the syllabus in my Spanish courses that every assignment is supposed to be written in Spanish. I have to do that because I’m not interested in receiving a bunch of texts on the subject of “How I spent this summer” written in English. When that happens, whose side do you think the Dean’s office is going to take? Mine? Shows how much you know about academia. I will be the bad guy – because the professor is a total enemy of humanity, as we all know – who didn’t manage to offer exhaustive instructions on how to do the assignment to the students.
As the Last Psychiatrist points out, the exam where the Harvard students cheated was in an introductory course. Students who take such courses do not yet possess the kind of knowledge that would allow them to come up with their own original ideas. Just like my students in Spanish 102 cannot write literary analysis essays in Spanish. Intro courses pursue the goal of getting the students acquainted with the basics of a discipline which will eventually (if they continue adding to that stock of knowledge) enable them to think critically and independently on issues pertaining to this area of knowledge. This is how learning happens. You read, you memorize, then you read and memorize some more. And after a while, you might end up creating an original insight. If you worked extremely hard on reading and memorizing, of course.
Freshmen often have absolutely no idea about the difference between an opinion and an informed opinion. Last semester, a student threw a tantrum when I did not give her a high grade for the following response to the question about the expulsion of the Jews from Spain:
I think it was a good thing that Jews were expelled from Spain. I mean, it wasn’t very pleasant for them to just get up and leave. But it was good for everybody in the end because they didn’t want to accept Christianity and it’s wrong to always try to be different from everybody else. If you live in society, you have to practice the religion that everybody practices. And if everybody in Spain was Catholic at that time, then the Jews were being subversive and it’s a good thing they left and everybody could continue to live peacefully without them and the problems they created.
When I tried to question the excessive use of the word “everybody” in this passage, the student got extremely sulky and started repeating “But this is my OPINION!” like it was some sort of mantra.
It’s funny how nobody ever approaches a bus driver to tell her how to do her job. We also don’t tend to see people breaking into operation rooms to lecture doctors on how to operate. And I haven’t heard of any cases where patrons of a restaurant congregate in the kitchen to offer advice to the chef.
An educator, however, is constantly observed, criticized and excoriated. Are you still surprised that we have so many idiots in this country?
Happy September 1, the Day of Knowledge, everybody!
Clarissa's Blog 
Last psychiatrist is wrong. Test has to be on the course. This is true for various reasons but also as an anti cheating measure.
LikeLike
That is hilarious. I often explain my intense focus on general principles in terms of attempting to maintain a liberal society under circumstances in which a significant percentage of the society come from sixteenth century Spain. By refusing to use violence (i.e. any for form of government) and sacrificing any hope of creating my ideal society my hope is that in return even my 16th century Spaniards would agree in turn to take me up on my bargain and not use violence themselves. Low and behold sixteenth century Spain is alive and well in this country. 🙂
Did you ask her about Spain’s persecution of the Alumbrados and Protestants?
LikeLike
“Did you ask her about Spain’s persecution of the Alumbrados and Protestants?”
– I always love the moment when we get to the persecution of the Protestants and everybody who shrugged off the persecution of the Jews in Spain suddenly gets this confused, slightly detached look. 🙂
LikeLike
I made a bunch of comments on the LP’s post and they were very poorly rated by the community over there. However, I do not think they are at all unreasonable. One of them actually thinks I am an avatar of that professor — which perhaps I am, we are in the same tribe as far as evident type of course goals and style of test construction go.
LikeLike
They probably think all professors are just outgrowths of the same evil monster. 🙂
I very very rarely find a blog where I want to leave a comment. Here, on my own blog, I mostly have a pleasantly intelligent environment. In other places, however, I’m not always sure people are not idiots.
LikeLike
Now I see why you bring discussions of other peoples’ posts over to your own blog.
Outgrowths of same evil monster, whose characteristics they are sure they know, definitely. 🙂
LikeLike
“Now I see why you bring discussions of other peoples’ posts over to your own blog.”
– Yes, here, at least, I have control over what is being said. And people know that I’m harsh, so they control themselves somewhat.
“Outgrowths of same evil monster, whose characteristics they are sure they know, definitely.”
– I’m sure a psychoanalyst could say a lot of interesting things about this irrational fear of teachers. 🙂
LikeLike
The ideological notion that every single ape and his robot is an utter genius who doesn’t need to go through the steps of learning anything is to blame for much social and intellectual decay. When I did my Fine Arts course straight out of high school, at Uni, I would have liked to have learned some of the skills required to paint and sculpt. Instead, it was like: “Okay off you go and prove whether or not you have genius.” Unless those foundations have already been laid in high school, no, nobody has that capacity to express genius.
LikeLike
And this blind worship of “OPINION” really gets to me, too. When did people start to forget that not all opinions are equally valid? I actually had a student complain that my entire course consisted of my opinions. We had a textbook (written not by me but by a famous Mexican writer), a bunch of supplementary readings from over 2 dozen authors, looked at paintings and sculpture, yet all this was perceived as my opinions.
No, it isn’t my opinion that there was a Civil war in Spain between 1936 and 1939. It’s actually a fact!
LikeLike
It’s a way of trying to reduce areas of knowledge which have become complex to a level where the average person doesn’t feel threatened by them. Nietzsche would call that the democratization of knowledge — not a good outcome, as one loses quality.
LikeLike
Yes, and it is also a misunderstanding of freedom of thought and of speech. And it is a symptom of US fear of connection and also of the intellect. Nobody wants to debate a point, just affirm their belief in your right to have your belief. I find this to be a form of disrespect, actually: everything is just a “belief.”
LikeLike
I agree completely that the idea that all opinions are equally valid is a form of disrespect! It’s easier to dismiss people in this way than to engage with their beliefs on a more profound level.
I also see this tendency in what relates to writing styles. “But this is my own unique writing style!” they often say.
“First, you have to learn to write correctly,” I respond. “And then you can proceed to work out your unique style of writing.”
LikeLike
“And this blind worship of “OPINION” really gets to me, too. When did people start to forget that not all opinions are equally valid?”
This is a perspective they seem to pick up in high school; you see, when they’re taking English courses, they are often asked opinion-based questions; these are no marked based on the validity of their opinions, but on how well they are written (and, with better teachers) how well they are defended.
As this is generally the most frequent context in which opinion-based questions are used in high school, alot of students come away with the idea that only horribly unfair teachers mark opinions as wrong.
To me, this just suggests that we need more philosophy courses in high schools.
LikeLike
//it’s wrong to always try to be different from everybody else. If you live in society, you have to practice the religion that everybody practices
What is the student’s views on today’s Jews in US? On the wrongness of not being a WASP in general? Makes me wonder with a bad feeling…
LikeLike
Student doesn’t believe in freedom of religion, so doesn’t have American values, so in his or her own view (although not ours), should be exiled.
LikeLike
“Student doesn’t believe in freedom of religion, so doesn’t have American values, so in his or her own view (although not ours), should be exiled.”
– Good point!
LikeLike
“What is the student’s views on today’s Jews in US”
– These are students who hear the word “Jew” for the first time ever in my class. 🙂 So I don’t think they have an opinion on Jews in the US.
“On the wrongness of not being a WASP in general? ”
– I’m sure I look plenty exotic. 🙂 Especially since I keep talking about the Jewish part of the family, Peruvian part of the family, Uruguayan part of the family, Ukrainian part of the family. etc. 🙂
LikeLike
I agree with much of Clarissa’a commentary. A lot depends on the nature of the course. For a mathematics or other science following the course is essential until one reaches the highest graduate level. For a technical language course exactly the same criteria hold. For other courses, history for example, it is a little more problematic. Suppose, for example, that a question deals with constitutions, but without specifiying the country. However the instructor has basically limited himself to the United States. Now a good answer from a knowledgeable student from the United Kingdom might contrast a written constitution with an unwritten constitution that had evolved over centuries. And that might be a good answer.
All depends on context. And of course foolish students will offer foolish answers whether or not they stray from the syllabus. A very interesting topic.
LikeLike
It’s great when the student knows *more* than what the question asks for.
LikeLike
@venerable, above: that explains a lot, then, about the sanctity of opinions. Here is the paradox I face: in classes where I explicitly state that I am not grading on content but only on form (grammar classes, for instance), people are very concerned about their content, is it OK to give an opinion, this opinion, etc. However, in classes where context, content, etc., matter — the research and conclusions will be the student’s own, but they must be well documented and reasoned — students say, but it is my opinion! if shown that they have false facts, poor logic, etc.
LikeLike