THE BOOK--Playing The Percentages In Baseball

Friday, May 16, 2008

Boring college professors say of surfing students:

Non-sports post.  Enter at your peril, avoid at your pleasure.

paraphrasing:

Boo hoo.  I’m dull and my class is not listening to me.  Please, listen to me.

What nerve.  I pay you money so that you can teach me something, and then, unhappy that you are too boring to have my attention, you get annoyed when I surf the web?  How about you give better lectures?  I can guarantee you that if Bill James were teaching a class, nobody would be checking my blog, or BTF, or any other baseball site, unless it would be to provide some pertinent information that the professor could discuss.

As for “distracted students”?  These are adults.  They are used to watching TV and surfing the net at the same time.  Professors are just like a TV to them.  Want their attention?  Get better content.

And in any case, you have in your power to dock students who don’t participate in class the way you like.  That’s enough power.  Don’t include torture as well.

Everyone is so power-hungry.