Arrogant Professor Will Change Your Outlook On Life
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Tags: Alan Fox, Philosophy, University of Delaware
Professors Strike Back on mtvU – As Seen on Rate My Professors
Your professors have been reading your comments on RateMyProfessors.com. Now it’s their turn…
Your professors have been reading the comments.
Now it's their turn...
- Ramón Raquello: “Nah. Not at all. It's just…“
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January 20th, 2010 at 12:56 am
I think he was pretty honest and realistic. Plus I think he did a good job at buffering the stupid comments of students who just a. didn't put in the effort or b. wanted to pass the class without putting in the work. If you haven't figured it out yet, college isn't supposed to be easy. Professor's are supposed to make you think and work for your degree, whether it be a core class, one for you major or one you didn't pass the first time around; college is college. You're professors went through it too. Sorry you have to actually work in a class. And if that's your outlook on college, to not do the work, then maybe college isn't the thing for you….
January 20th, 2010 at 1:05 am
There is absolutely nothing wrong with anything that this professor has said in this video. Shame on this site for emblazooning the words arrogant over his photo before we even get to hear what he has to say.
January 20th, 2010 at 1:14 am
You are the man,and I want you to teach me
January 20th, 2010 at 1:25 am
You know the word "arrogant" was to show what people have been saying about him. not what the site says…
January 20th, 2010 at 4:01 am
I like this guy, if I were to ever study in Delaware I'll definitely take his class.
January 20th, 2010 at 5:19 am
This is just a general comment about the video. It is really annoying that after every one his answers, there is a splash video introduction. It appears that multiple small videos were thrown together in one. The entire video is 8 minutes, whereas the introductions/splash screens take up maybe 2 minutes. It is tough to watch through and just really wasted time.
January 20th, 2010 at 3:17 pm
Please Kill The Soul-Grating Guitar Intros Every 15 Seconds! WTF!
January 20th, 2010 at 4:12 pm
I like him but I bet at school he doesn't want to chat or make friends. I think his face and eyes make him look unapproachable. Some people just have those faces that project grumpiness or arrogance. he's definately not insecure so that makes him intimidating. he doesn't really have a soft side. his voice never changes from that growly straight forward hard edge.
January 20th, 2010 at 4:31 pm
I COMPLETELY AGREE, SOOOOOOOOO ANNOYING!!!!!!!!!!
January 20th, 2010 at 5:52 pm
As a student at Udel, I know Dr. Fox personally and have a number of friends who've taken his courses. Dr. Fox is known throughout campus as one of the best professors around, and he also does an excellent job running the school's honors program. He is not intimidating, arrogant, or grumpy. He is actually VERY approachable, friendly, and helpful.
January 20th, 2010 at 6:23 pm
Why the fuck does it stop every 15 seconds to play that horrible lame rock music? Let us watch the fucking video all the way through. Jesus Christ!!!!!!!!!!!
January 20th, 2010 at 9:47 pm
Took him this past fall for a world religions class. One of the best professors for making you think about the world, and most of the stuff that he's being "criticized for" can really be taken as a complement if you've ever had him. Yes, he's a lot of work, but you get a lot out of the class. He knows your name and enough about you to recognize you out at a restaurant a year after hes had you, and thats saying something for a professor at a university of 20,000. Quite a man.
Also, the reason that it cut up into little bits is because it was produced as little segway-blurbs in between music videos on MTV-U.
January 21st, 2010 at 2:41 pm
this guy is a DB
January 21st, 2010 at 8:07 pm
Just from listening to this man speak I would never take any of his classes. By the way he talks in every one of his comebacks he sounds very arrogant. I hate to tell you sir, but your not God, and don't act like Him. Also, maybe you need to step back from yourself and "clear your mind" and ask yourself, "is there any possibility that there is truth to what one of these people has said about me?" And then you need to try to change it because if you don't do something, your going to be losing more students than you are gaining.
P.S. Why would it matter if the students want to leave anonymous comments? Maybe they do because you scare them off with your arrogant personality. The point of the matter is, you did something or acted in a way that your students did not like, and therefore need to change that if you want people to like you. Simple as that. Nobody will leave you bad comments for no reason, I promise.
January 21st, 2010 at 8:07 pm
I second this
January 21st, 2010 at 8:53 pm
I think the comments here are stupid and show the students leaving them are stupid. None of these people leaving comments that rip on instructors will do much good their entire life. And like jerk who left a comment before this one…"I promise".
"Every time you attack someone, you become less and less human."
January 21st, 2010 at 9:42 pm
You're professors went through it too. spell your right idiot
January 21st, 2010 at 9:47 pm
Professor's are supposed to make you think.
another mistake, professor's? looks like college isn't the thing for you either…
January 21st, 2010 at 10:05 pm
Mr Fox seems like an excellent teacher. I think the students leaving negative comments are forgetting the role of the student. College is meant to be challenging and expand one's mind. Teachers are meant to be "tough", not hold their student's hands. Do not take a course like philosophy or world religion if you do not want your closed mind and conservative values challenged. It sounds like Fox is teaching a bunch of spoiled and ignorant babies.
January 22nd, 2010 at 12:42 am
I have a real problem with his response to the "philosophical mindset" question. His assumption that the ability to "think clearly and express yourself clearly" is an "innate capability of all humans" is false. There are numerous physiological reasons why a person may not be capable of thinking or expressing themselves clearly. Saying they are not "a member of the human race" is patently offensive and is a clear indicator of his arrogance regardless of education or age disparity.
January 22nd, 2010 at 2:56 am
Yes, college is work and I would know I'm getting my Master's presently. But some professors are arrogant, they refuse to help you or do their jobs and some professors have a chip on their shoulders from all the past "work" they had to do so they delibertly make it impossible to get an A and sometimes even a passing grade. You clearly have'nt had a teacher make an example of you yet and let's hope you never do, you most likely would'nt know how to handle it.
January 22nd, 2010 at 4:31 am
well said! I felt offended… Fox, learn how to accept constructive criticism to improve yourself, otherwise you will loose your membership of the human race!
January 22nd, 2010 at 3:44 pm
you clearly don't understand. those are student comments and he is responding to them. the site is not calling him arrogant.
January 23rd, 2010 at 2:12 am
Saw your Blog bookmarked on Reddit. Nice Blog.
January 23rd, 2010 at 2:44 pm
This video just shows that the Professor is arrogant. The whole rebuttal to the "killer smile" was just completely unnecessary. The only reason someone would rebut that is if they are arrogant. Thank god I'm not a philosophy major because I just can't deal with arrogance.
January 23rd, 2010 at 2:55 pm
Oh, you must be an elementary education major then. At least give us a list of the non-arrogant majors (or perhaps the subject areas of the non-arrogant professors), please.
January 23rd, 2010 at 5:47 pm
I took Dr. Fox's PHIL-204 class as a high-school sophomore at UDel last summer, and it is not a cake walk in the least. His lectures are ALWAYS interesting, and when you figure out what he's trying to say, it's a fantastic feeling. Though his grades were often a little rougher than I was ready for, I escaped with a C+!
January 23rd, 2010 at 5:49 pm
Eeeerrrrrr, I agree with much of this, though i admit, the prospect of having sex with his mind does not appeal to me at all. Whoever said that is really sick.
January 25th, 2010 at 7:06 pm
4th sentence: no apostrophe in "professors". 5th sentence: that should be "your" (possessive) not "you're". I'm just sayin'
January 27th, 2010 at 7:38 am
you are a fool, do you think people enroll to fail? no they enroll to learn. instructors get paid to teach, plain and simple. who r u to say others don't try hard. consider the person who hasn't been in school for 30 yrs. think they did as a whim? hardly. learning curves are hard especially when you have life outside school. not everyone lives at home with mommy and daddy, or worse, those who really don't have to work for a living.
January 28th, 2010 at 11:29 pm
You aren't the brightest person are you?
1. He's not arrogant.
2. He's not acting like "God". He actually told a student who made a postive comment that he was being too devoted. He's acting just the opposite.
3. When he spoke of being anonymous he was talking about students who didn't want him to memorize they're name in class. That student had a problem with the proff knowing his name in class. He didn't say anything about people commenting about him anonymously.
4. The teacher's goal isn't to be LIKED. It's to TEACH. Teaching isn't a popularity contest. Who cares if you "lose" students. There is not a comment a student made that implies he's a bad proffessor. If he lost students it would only be the lazy ones.
January 29th, 2010 at 5:35 am
This man is filled with sarcasm! Glad I never had him as a professor because I probably would have lots of nastier comments to add to his post! However he seems to be very intelligent, educated, and knowledgable about his field and expertise… he needs to come off his high horse and help his students!
January 29th, 2010 at 8:46 am
This teacher seems cool. Most of the bad feedback are from people who are just weak, and do not want expand or change your mind.
January 29th, 2010 at 10:53 pm
I wonder what your response would have been had he professed your thesis; that some people fundamentally lack the capability to think and express themselves clearly. I think the expectation that everyone is capable of ordered and rational thought is a position that is both egalitarian and inclusive. Certainly there are physiological and psychological disease states that may prevent ordered thought but these are not exemplary of the general human population.
February 1st, 2010 at 10:03 pm
These are interesting to watch, but why in the world does it have to have that horrible annoying music for every single thing he responds to. I don't want to watch the whole thing because that's so annoying!
February 3rd, 2010 at 8:48 pm
Like so many philosophy professors, Dr. Fox is an ableist. [Google ableism.] What I mean by this is that he expects every student to have the same level of cognitive competence — and that is just not going to happen. There are A LOT of students out there who simply cannot understand the stuff he teaches. Punishing someone for not being bright, or for not being a genius, sets a terrible example for a teacher in higher education.
February 3rd, 2010 at 9:29 pm
I have taken a course with Professor Fox and I can completely understand why some find him arrogant. I did fairly well in the course, however my outlook on life has not been changed and he most certainly has not changed my beliefs. I was not very impressed with his "vocabulary day" as he would ask the meaning of words such as "pragmatic." He's a very decent person, but in my opinion only a mediocre professor.
February 3rd, 2010 at 10:00 pm
TGS, you're obviously a mainstreamist (Wiki "Mainstreaming (education))." What a sweet and laudable social goal!
One of the problems, of course, is that if you've been mainstreamed all your life, you're under the distinct illusion that you're not retarded. The problem is that some people are, in fact, retarded. Intelligence, for what it's worth (and it begs definition, I know), falls under the normal distribution of a bell curve (not "The" Bell Curve).
You might be in the 2nd %-ile, you know?
February 6th, 2010 at 5:25 pm
You + are = you're
February 7th, 2010 at 5:50 am
This professor appears and sounds like a very reasonable person and a concerned teacher. Everyone should be so lucky as to get teachers that care. All those whiners complaining – this is for your own good
February 8th, 2010 at 7:39 pm
Yeah, what he said!
February 8th, 2010 at 7:41 pm
Yep, that's why they call it college…cause it's hard.
February 15th, 2010 at 4:41 am
2 pts for ableist…pedant.
February 16th, 2010 at 4:59 am
How about the poor dental care gap?
February 16th, 2010 at 3:12 pm
Come to senses students: Most tenured profs have nothing to lose; thus they don't care and certainly arrogant. A tenured prof's class is full, half, or whatever, does not matter, because such vacumm does not effec the salary of the prof. In fact, arrogant tenured profs purposesly behave in a way so that their class sizes are small. Small class size means less work for them; and that's what they want. They cannot be fired unless they commit crime. Unless the tenure system is abolished, they will continue to behave the way they do.
February 18th, 2010 at 2:17 am
annoying ass video
February 18th, 2010 at 9:11 pm
Excellent rebuttal. Student's changing value systems are incongruous with independent thought. Confidence is mistaken for arrogance, intellect and intellectual discourse are regarded as antisocial and intimidating.
We have sired a generation of poltically correct mental automatons with a one size fits all thought process. Spontaneous thought is truly an unfamiliar and daunting task when one is raised in an ideologically sterile environment . I tip my hat to a professor that has the ambition and dedication to make honey from vinegar.
Philosophy is nothing more than the exercise of thought. It is an attempt to think in cinemascope. It appears to be a daunting task if one is used to pinhole perceptions, but not an impossible one. The abiltiy to think at levels other than those prompted by media entertainment will provide a success in any venture of a person's choosing. The brain can function as our tool for success or our worst enemy. Philosophy is the brain gym. Work it or lose it.
February 22nd, 2010 at 11:09 pm
hmmmm sounds like someone is forgetting who pays his salary…. I would never take ANY of his classes!! I really dislike people like this because they think that they know it all
February 22nd, 2010 at 11:25 pm
Proffessor Fox is VERY arrogant and seems to have forgotten who pays his salary. Also, when he says stuff about people commenting anonymously, I think that he's just mad that he doesn't know who they are. That happens when people think they know everything but don't. I think that he should retire from teaching and work in the sewer systems for awhile, it would suit him better!
P.S. When he told the "positive" student that they were being too devoted, he was talking about being devoted to him. Get your facts straight before you try to get up here and be a smart a**