Girlish handwriting a bragging right
Professor James Livingston: Rutgers University – HistoryTangents, bull****, enhance learning process
View Professor Profile Your CommentsProfessor James Livingston: Rutgers University – HistoryTangents, bull****, enhance learning process
View Professor Profile Your Comments
May 19th, 2008 at 1:52 pm
Um, well if you know all of the facts and have a somewhat interesting style of teaching, you shouldn’t have to B.S. your students. Simply have enough to say. If you B.S. people, they will give you a B.S. attention span.
May 20th, 2008 at 8:21 pm
Yes, because facts are always intriguing.
May 20th, 2008 at 8:32 pm
I know the professor and he has great substance. He gets people to think, which is the opposite of B.S.
Education works by getting people interested. For people who want to keep their down, take predigested notes and get out with the least work possible, everything is B.S. But then what are their comments but B.S.
The Student should read Harry Frankfurt’s On ********. Harry’s retired and would probably take the comment as a compliment.
May 21st, 2008 at 5:30 pm
Thanks for the professorial rebuttal Jim Livingston. As a prof myself the “rate my professors” site, is always entertaining in a pop tv kind of way. The revelation that students hold the conviction that teachers should be tap dancing through lectures to keep students alert or, alternatively, displaying perfect handwriting and uniformly distributing “a’s’ to those who exercise the least brain power always keeps me laughing.
Bravo Jim ….thanks for chewing off a slice. I like the New Jersey comment best of all; that will keep me giggling for a few days.
May 24th, 2008 at 4:56 pm
One thing that many professors tend to forget is that their job is to teach students in a efficient way in which they can learn. So if a student is complaining of your teaching ability then chances are you are doing something wrong. You guys need to make your students your main focus and not your egos.
May 25th, 2008 at 3:25 am
Exactly Larry.
May 25th, 2008 at 5:53 am
Many students want to be spoon fed or better yet breast fed and take no responsibility for their education. Guess what…grow up!!!! this is not high school. Take responsibilty and stop blaming the professors for your poor grades, sloppy handwriting and the inability to spell…its your call. BTW, I am a student.
May 25th, 2008 at 9:47 pm
Howdy Julia, Norman, and Carol.
You other guys, apart from Vee, need to understand some of the basic facts of professorial life. First, teaching is performance, so B.S. is an integral part of the interaction, especially when a student takes a weird tangent. There are no facts absent interpretation. Think of stand-up comedy and you will begin to understand what it’s like to address 120 students at 8:00 in the morning.
Second, us professors have many constituencies, you students compose just one. Larry at Lunch has a point, and I have the utmost respect for public opinion because it is the practical embodiment of consent, the central principle of political obligation in modern republics. But c’mon, guys, you’re a cross-section of the student body? Probably not.
I’m still on the second point, guess I’m digressing, maybe bullshitting. Professors like me have to speak to, and more or less satisfy, at least four constituencies: (1) other professors, locally, (2) administrators, (3) other professors, professionally–publish or perish, remember? and (4) students. But then these categories tend to widen, for example there are undergraduates and graduate students.
If you want to think of yourself as consumers with complaints, try the department store. Or take a really hard class.
So lighten up. Or go to graduate school.
May 28th, 2008 at 4:29 am
Well! I must say, the last few minutes have been quite entertaining.
I teach US history at a community college-usually the fast track section which is five Saturdays from 8 am to 5pm. In and out. That’s the way my students like to take history, and when I get going, I don’t like to stop.
Lecture fast? Yep
Write sloppy? Yep Yep
Spoon feed the students-I tried that too. Now I just teach.
I no longer care if they like me or not. My ego isn’t in the way. It’s just not a factor any longer. It takes too much time and energy to worry about a students opinion. Plus, there’s no way a professor can please all of the students all of the time.
So I will continue to make my babyboomer jokes, tell my babyboomer stories, and lecture in my Maybury style for as long as I’m paid.
Somewhere in between, my students learn. When they leave my class they usually know more about the US than I ever did when I attended undergrad school.
History is fun!
I love history!
Yay for college professors!
June 5th, 2008 at 2:34 am
Yay Claudette! I think I’d like taking your course in US history.
June 5th, 2008 at 10:15 pm
I would love to see a person, like this gentleman, from Jersey come to my college and get the professors or the students that are education majors to speak faster while they are still working on their ability to annunciatie their intelligent vocabularies. Right now, the poli sci and econ departments are the fast speaking leaders. Wow. Some surprise there…..um, no. It is a state school and a “research” atmosphere.
June 5th, 2008 at 10:16 pm
*annunciate
June 22nd, 2008 at 1:55 am
you are really cute when saying you are living in New Jersey
June 29th, 2008 at 11:11 pm
YEAH YOU GOT TO BE A B.S. ARTIST. OMG THAT CLIP MADE MY DAY
I LAUGHED BUT IN REALITY WE SHOULD AWAYS TELL THE TRUTH.
WHY BECAUSE IF WE LIE SOMEONE DOES A MISS CLACULATION AND BOOM DISASTER STRICKS.
October 14th, 2008 at 3:46 pm
This is hilarious.
I had the pleasure to know and be a student of James Livingston.
****, I even had a few beers with him. If you can’t appreciate the wealth
of knowledge that spews from this mans mouth then I’m quite sure you’re
an idiot.
December 31st, 2008 at 8:51 am
He seems like a great guy and professor! He honestly comes off as being “real” and not bullshitting when it comes to history. Other BS may be to take a break from all the history he has to cover.. think about it… how long can you honestly listen to it and not go off track, it is probably the same for him! Give him a break….
January 16th, 2009 at 12:42 pm
Larry not all students learn the same way. I learn by doing and hearing at the same time, I have a friend who learns by reading, another friend that has to hear and write the lecture at the same time or she won’t retain any of it…. people learn in different ways. As a prof you can’t possibly accommodate everyone. You do what you do best and if someone needs help… there are office hours.
He’s right… you go with the flow and the pace of your environment. NY/NJ are fast paced environments. If you need to go slower go to ESU in PA. It’s a slow paced individually focused university for those that need the “special” attention.
September 18th, 2009 at 2:46 am
ahahaha some people put way to much time in to this.(james livingston). kids get on here to laugh and make fun of their teachers because they get a bad grade in the class. no shit it doesnt make sense. who cares