Hello students and faculty of Fairfield University. My name is Frank. I’m here to make sure you get a dose of entertainment to sift you through another week of the same-old-same-old.
I’ll talk about other pressing issues including how to get the attention of that girl in Western Civilization class, how to make great first impressions with the elderly, or how to keep a sense of peace with your roommate who throws all their stuff on your side of the room. What a jerk!
But in all seriousness, where do I begin? The cafeteria? The FUSA election? The freshman enrollment rate being higher than last year despite already having such a high enrollment? That girl in my Western Civilization class?
Something this first week of classes really caught my attention: the futility of arguing with your favorite professor and where we, the students, draw the line when it comes to how much control a teacher actually has.
Quite frankly it is very simple: the professor is the decider. The professor says what goes and what doesn’t go.
For instance, if a teacher tells you to stop talking about how drunk you were last night in psychology or how drunk you will be tonight in psychology class, that is typically a respectable demand. Nobody wants to hear you talk anyway, seriously.
Where do we draw the line when it comes to whether or not a student disagrees with a teacher’s position in a religion class? This week in my study of Eastern and Asian religions class, a student was deeply offended by a teacher’s position in class.
Student: “What do you mean there are contradictions inside the Bible! You’re wrong.”
Professor: “Well let me ask you this, are you the teacher?”
Student: “Well no, but-”
Professor: “Well, you better step down or take a new section.”
Maybe the conversation didn’t go exactly like that, but it was similar. The question is, where do we draw the line between a student’s opinion and what is being taught?
This is not a new problem; it goes back to Darwinism, a major controversy in our society. This type of argument produces inspiring and intriguing thoughts, but I don’t think it should take place between teacher and student about the main idea of an academic course.
If all the founding arguments of a course revolved around a single idea, a student should consider: am I interested in this idea? You shouldn’t take courses that you are offended by or disagree with, but you also shouldn’t go into courses you disagree with in the hopes of arguing with a professor.
Professors are just doing their jobs as best as they can and can’t help that it contradicts what you believe in. Nobody is forcing you to take one religious study over another anyway.
This way, if you don’t want to learn about Asian religions, you don’t have to.
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