Impassioned Prof Doesn’t Share Your Views, No Matter What They Are
Professor Joseph Zornado: Rhode Island College – EnglishHe also does his best to be polite.
View Professor ProfileProfessor Joseph Zornado: Rhode Island College – EnglishHe also does his best to be polite.
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September 21st, 2009 at 11:42 pm
"Strong feelings about politics"?? In an ENGLISH class? Come on, prof.! Don't shove politics where it doesn't belong. You should've become a polisci professor for that matter.
September 22nd, 2009 at 4:57 pm
Yeah, 'cause there's no politics in language or literature, right?
Sheesh. Go read Orwell's "Politics and the English Language" before you spout off.
September 25th, 2009 at 9:32 pm
LOL at this tool. People like you are one of the reason English departments are becoming increasingly marginalized.
September 28th, 2009 at 1:40 am
Hey !! we pay YOUR SALARY!!! EGOTISTICAL AIRHEAD!
September 28th, 2009 at 1:40 am
like to see him make it in the REAL WORLD!
September 28th, 2009 at 2:04 am
RIC is a public institution. So tax revenue from the citizens of the great state of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations supplies the bulk of the monies that support the college.
Do you think your piddly $2,700 per semester actually pays for anything except the liquid soap in the restroom dispensers? You pay the college a nominal sum for the opportunity to learn. The college hires faculty, negotiates their salaries, and pays the staff. Essentially, your money goes to pay for the soap.
So take advantage of your financial contribution to your education, and don't forget to wash your hands after you use the ladies room.
September 30th, 2009 at 9:14 pm
I would sacrifice a few soap dispensers to replace this guy!
Those who can, do. Those who can't, teach.
October 1st, 2009 at 12:42 am
those who think that, can't teach.
October 1st, 2009 at 2:13 am
Sometimes "to do" means "to teach."
This would be true when we're discussing the act of teaching. It renders obvious the logical absurdity of that trite statement as "Those who can teach, do teach. Those who can't teach, teach." As Wittgenstein once said, "WTF?"
Who taught you how to read and write, Sarah? An illiterate?
October 14th, 2009 at 6:43 am
I love all the people who say school isn't the real world… and yet they spend over 20 years of their life in school. Some of those years voluntarilly. Get a clue Candice! if it isn't the real world, then why are you wasting your time there?
October 16th, 2009 at 6:58 am
That is the world's most expensive liquid soap.
October 16th, 2009 at 5:28 pm
Not sure why there are so many supporters of bad professors. We’ve all been there, abused by a professor because they have the power to. No, college life is NOT the real world, and anyone who’s been through college and out for more than 6 months knows that. Its not even an argument. My parents are both teachers in high school, and even THEY know that teaching is NOT the same as an 8-5 M-F job. Sheesh, really? How many of us grew up thinking we were going to graduate college and get an 8-3:30 job, M-F, with three months off a year and weeks at a time every three months?
Let people vent here, and quit trying to justify sadistic and iron fisted professors who will never be in true control of anything but their class.
October 17th, 2009 at 1:19 am
There are many flaws in your post. First of all, you're confusing being a student (college life) with teaching. Do well in school and you have a good chance that you'll do well in life. You can take the time to develop good habits and improve your innate skills. Being in the military can help you with this as well and no one would call that "real life" (hyper-life?).
Show your post to your parents, and see if they don't think that they don't put in a full-day's work. HS teachers prep, do curricular development, go to meetings, take classes, correct papers, etc. Profs do much of that too (plus research and publication). Haven't you paid attention to what it is your folks do every evening?
Prof-abusers are about as frequent as HS-teacher-abusers (or abusers in the general population). Ask the 'rents if they abuse their students.
You have an underlying disrespect for what it is your parents do. You should know better. I think you're angry at someone here . . . . I wonder who?
October 25th, 2009 at 2:56 am
Well, I've never had this professor and don't go to this school, so it may be hypocritical for me to judge him in particular. Based on his responses in this rebuttal, I think he's spot on about allowing you to take chances, being serious about learning, and being irked if people come in late. Now, I don't think professors should make huge deals about the latter, so long as you come in quietly and don't make a habit of it, unless a prior class forces you to be consistently late. Having back-to-back class should allow you some leeway. However, it's just a bit rude to show up late and be noisy. But, again, in college, you're the one paying for your education; no one is forcing you to be there. So, as long as you show up quietly and don't make a disruption beyond coming in and sitting down, then I don't think professors have any right to chew you out for it.
As for the politics issue, yes, books deal with them and it's good to discuss them in context of what the literature concludes about them. It is NOT okay to shove your political viewpoint on others or dictate what is and isn't right. Professors are meant to teach, and to teach well, they should ask students to draw their own conclusions, not dogmatically force those conclusions on their students. A good teacher asks questions and encourages students to consider ALL viewpoints, he does not share his own within the classroom.
October 25th, 2009 at 2:50 pm
*ALL viewpoints: (paradoxically) anyone expressing his opinions in class should be shot.
Some things are "right" to say and some things are not. The professor acts as both referee and guide. Almost all viewpoints are encouraged in elementary school. Through the course of education, we narrow the idea of what constitutes valid opinion. A great teacher shares her own viewpoint with students and engages in reasoned and logical debate about that viewpoint within the classroom. That's what professors are paid for. By definition, each professor is a unique scholar with a point of view (i.e., a dissertation) different from all other scholars within her discipline. This point of view she has professed (made public), defended satisfactorally, and that she continues to defend (insofar as she still holds to those opinions).
Politics enters every aspect of culture. You can't discuss Galileo from a historical point of view without mentioning a political stance that might rub certain students "the wrong way." And one can't properly discuss Literature, Marketing, Economics, Art, etc., without bringing up politics.
October 26th, 2009 at 12:00 am
When you've gone to grad school, written a book or a handful of peer-reviewed articles, and served on all of the committees or attended all of the meetings that are requisites of being a professor, then you can talk. Until then, shut the fuck up.
P.S. Being a high school teacher is not nearly the same as being a professor.
October 27th, 2009 at 11:13 pm
or some of us have the desire to teach in the first place, not as a fallback. dont be so pompus. if you cant respect a teacher, why did you come to college??
October 27th, 2009 at 11:16 pm
just bc is in school hours are 8-330 doesnt mean the work ends there. how many hours are spent planning lessons, grading, and trying to figure out what your students need.
feel free to vent about iron-fists and sadism, if you like, but dont belittle the profession.
October 29th, 2009 at 1:25 am
I don't think there is any wrong in discussed about politics in the English class. If it is a good discussion, it is a good learning regardless of topic or subject in any class. However, if the professor grade student's paper based on his or her political view point in English class, that would be the problem.
October 29th, 2009 at 5:04 am
Literature, culture, and writing are political activities. Besides, it sounds like his focus is on getting students to question themselves and think, rather than trying to tell them what to think. Whatever the topic of such thinking, it does belong in an English class.
October 30th, 2009 at 5:43 pm
The problem isn't that politics are discussed. It is when an instructor declares an opinion as fact and uses the "my way or the highway approach"
November 1st, 2009 at 5:46 pm
English professors can speak about whatever topics they wish – as long as it's in English and they're showing how English works. Rhetoric (the art of persuasion) is a huge part of English.
Reading this site is very eye-opening though. One can certainly see why the students are the students and the profs are the profs. Profs can't seem to win – as long as one student gets a grade of C or lower, they'll be on this site complaining about whatever.
/not an English teacher
//feel for those who are
November 4th, 2009 at 5:22 am
Personally i don't have a beef with this guy.
I'm ok with an english teacher using politics as an example, as long as it's within the context of that particular class. However.
If the point of using politics to change the viewpoint of the student, or to make them question their beliefs, then i would consider using politics wrong. (only in this context)
Using politics to create doubt or to raise questions not regarding an English class belong in a psychology, philosophy, political science, sociology, or anything of the likeness.
November 4th, 2009 at 8:42 am
Abused by a professor, "we've all been there"? Most assclowns have been there, and a fraction of normal students. Not "all".
Sorry, stopped reading after sentence two. Charming attempt at making the public agree by including them in your "all". For now, you'll get an F; please return amended version.
November 4th, 2009 at 8:52 am
The whole "liquid soap" discussion is a bit irrelevant — whether the student('s parents) pays the lot, or the taxpayers, a salary is paid.
The fundamental problem is the service attitude expressed in Winfield's trolling, "you are paid for a teaching service, so you have to teach to my specifications". (Who cares that these little soundbites represent almost nothing of actual views/attitudes/practice, that would make this whole site irrelevant. Erm.) Essentially you forget the part about the teacher knowing what he's working towards; so let's have the student whining from his narrow perspective.
The majority of Anglosaxon unies are crumbling because of this attitude/financing model (e.g., payment per degree delivered –> staff cannot fail anyone however incompetent –> devalues all other students' degrees).
November 5th, 2009 at 8:40 pm
Yes, you paid for your education, but that does not entitle you to be tardy. What about the other students who also paid for the class and are now being disturbed by late comers? The other students complain to the professor and expect action. It is then the professors job to take action against the tardy student.
November 15th, 2009 at 1:48 pm
why are professors allowed to have political opinions?
November 19th, 2009 at 4:32 am
Maybe you suck at math? You wouldn't be the first, you know.
November 19th, 2009 at 4:35 am
How does a professor not live in the "real world?" Do you think being a professor is a temporary job for them, as being a student is for you? Because that would be pretty stupid.
November 19th, 2009 at 6:53 pm
your an idiot