College brochures forgot to mention that whole reading thing
Professor Juan Cole: University of Michigan – HistoryIt’s not that the books are boring, it’s that reading is boring
View Professor Profile Your CommentsProfessor Juan Cole: University of Michigan – HistoryIt’s not that the books are boring, it’s that reading is boring
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Tags: History, Juan Cole, University of Michigan
May 26th, 2008 at 11:58 pm
Ha! It’s about time a professor tells it like it is! Most of the morons that enter college in this day in age feel that it is going to be a 24/7 party/sex fest. Well guess what? YOU HAVE TO GROW UP!!!! You want to be treated like adults, ACT LIKE ADULTS!!! That includes not contributing to stupid sites like this one!
May 27th, 2008 at 8:01 am
There’s nothing stupid about this site except for the idiots who think it’s for bashing teachers. You’re right, college isn’t a cakewalk, and some people are just lazy, but this site is really helpful when you want to know a thing or two about the teacher you’re paying money to learn from. When you have a choice, it should be an educated one. Also, the only helpful ratings on this site are the ones from students who get A’s or B’s. Too bad you can’t filter by that.
May 27th, 2008 at 5:58 pm
I have found this site to be quite accurate and will continue to use it.
June 2nd, 2008 at 7:54 pm
Whatever you say David, guess your a loner without fun and sex.
June 4th, 2008 at 1:34 pm
I do not think most students have a problem with reading in general, but the amount of required reading amounts sometimes, beyond the hours in a week. For example, being a Poly sci major is a large amount of reading, which usually isn’t a problem. It becomes a problem when there is 4 books, 6 articles, and essays due for each class and each week. 24 hours in a day – 8 to sleep – 2 to do other things (that of course in quite liberal and yes, everyone needs downtime) My suggestion is this, when deciding what to teach in a class, remember that YOUR class is not the only one that a student has.
PS- It may not be as big as a problem at your university, but at mine there are on the quarter system which only allows 10 weeks per grading period.
June 4th, 2008 at 1:51 pm
PS- Juan Cole
You do understand by your last comment of saying that a minority opinion is statistically meaningless, you are not only advocating that majority opinion are always correct, when in fact historically is not true. But, you are also advocating that the isolation of dissenting opinion, which should always be held higher, assuming that you are of attempting to make your class better each year. Lastly, and most important thing to remember is that no change in society can ever come to be without that “meaningless” opinion.
June 9th, 2008 at 8:37 pm
Juan Cole you are such a stud. I miss his class
June 12th, 2008 at 9:57 pm
this guy cracks me up! Sorry you had to Read. haha. People are such morons. What did you go to school for?
June 13th, 2008 at 12:44 am
Chris, that is not what he said at all. Nice attempt at a straw man. If you understood statistics you would have known he was talking about having representative data. RMP is like an online poll where anyone can vote and vote as much as they want. It is statistically meaningless. Perhaps less griping and more education would be useful to you.
June 18th, 2008 at 2:57 pm
I don’t know what you’re talking about Chris; Professor Cole didn’t say that the majority opinion was always correct. Maybe you should try the reading thing a bit more often so your analytical skills increase. Or your listening; whichever you think is more immediately important.
What he said was that the opinions expressed on this site are from self-motivated students–students either very happy or very upset with rarely a middle ground. And so, if 10 dissatisfied students log on and bash on teacher, everyone reading looks and says, “Wow; this person must be a horrible teacher.” When in fact, what has happened is that the people are reading the review from a horrible student. Since no part of the site asks for your GPA before posting, there is no way to know what group is writing the review.
June 19th, 2008 at 9:09 am
This place is just like stores, businesses, etc. 90% of the comments you hear are from the 1% of unsatisfied customers, and are rarely indicative of the true nature of how things are. It’s not statistically meaningful.
June 19th, 2008 at 11:34 pm
Hey Heather,
I went to school so that I would know never to end a sentence with a preposition.
Cheers!
June 27th, 2008 at 4:07 am
It doen’t take that much sophistication to evaluate the evaluations. Most negavie evaluations from disgruntled idiots are self-revealing enough to be discounted. I read for the coherency and get valuable indications. Good instructors get more good votes. As well as some bad apples. The mediochre ones don’t get any votes at all. And the really miserable instructors get miserable reviews that cite examples and lay out reasonable arguments.
Self selected, yes. Irrelevant and unuseful? Not really.
July 21st, 2008 at 3:59 pm
Yes, there is too much reading required when I was ready to obtain a degree. I fear having to write even a simple essay or an e-mail to friends who are fluent in English, since I left school 20+ years ago. Now, I love writing because of all the hard work I have put in reading till after midnight with my 3 little kids asleep. I have no fear in having to do research for ny type of essays now. I definitely still need a lot of work to improve my English; in other words, a lot more reading and hard work for another 3 years before I graduate. It is so worth it. Professor Juan Cole obviously love to teach and care for his student when he did not chose being on Connor’s show ahead of teaching class on Thursday. I would be honor to be in his student.
August 23rd, 2008 at 9:11 am
I’m an architecture student — if you don’t know find out about us
It would have been a cake walk if all I had to do was read a few books and right a couple papers. It’s not to say I’m complaining. Rather, think there are way too many whiners out there.
August 25th, 2008 at 1:56 am
I think you meant to say, “write”. Right?
September 10th, 2008 at 5:49 pm
I’d love to have this guy as a professor. Students need to stop whining and simply do their work. This week alone I was assigned about 1300 pages to read between my three classes, with a presentation and a book review on top of that (this is for an MA in History, mind). You do the work, end of story.
September 10th, 2008 at 9:53 pm
Hey Kid,
Why the **** aren’t you reading those 1300 pages instead of poasting comments on this page?
Now get back to work or next summer you’re going to be driving a bread truck in Paducah.
September 10th, 2008 at 9:55 pm
I meant to say, “Posting”, not “poasting”; I’ve had a few martinis too many, and my fine motor skill are impaired.
September 15th, 2008 at 10:02 pm
Maybe Dr. Popper will pit an olive for me…
October 26th, 2009 at 12:23 am
Perhaps you would have learned a little English if you had. The word you're looking for is "write," not "right." Let's hope you're better at designing buildings than you are at expressing yourself.