Woolcock Responds to Student’s Allegations
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James Joyner | Wednesday, February 9, 2005 |
Rusty Shackleford received some comments on his blog from Joseph Woolcock, the Foothill College political science professor whose grading of a patriotic essay and his alleged disparaging comments to its undergraduate author created a firestorm last month. (See California Professor Flunks (Awful) Pro-U.S. Essay for my take at the time.)
Woolcock comes across as more than reasonable. Rusty agrees, observing,
This happens all the time. In fact, not a semester goes by where at least one student doesn’t accuse me of giving them an F because I don’t like their politics or have some personal vendetta against them. The fact is that neither is true. The reason I give so many students an F is because there is no lower grade to give.
Sadly, it’s true. As Steven Taylor notes, students sometimes demonstrate an amazing ability to misunderstand things:
I once told a class (I forget why) that when I was in High School I worked at McDonaldâs and that one of my co-workers used to come to work stoned. Several semesters later a student asked me to tell the story about how I used to come to work at McDonaldâs stoned. Not only would one prefer not to have such a story about oneself circulating campus, the situation certainly underscored how poorly students listen to their professors on some (if not many) occasions.
Yep. Exams often do that, too.
About the Author: James Joyner is the publisher of Outside the Beltway and the managing editor of the Atlantic Council. He's a former Army officer, Desert Storm vet, and college professor with a PhD in political science from The University of Alabama. He lives just outside the Beltway in Alexandria, Virginia.
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