Sacramento State professor George Parrott walked out of his Psychology 101 lab class Thursday morning because his students didn't bring any snacks.
Instead, he says, he went to breakfast with his teaching assistant.
The professor said students are told of the requirement to bring snacks on the first day of class. A handout from the teacher is clear – "Not having a snack = no Dr. Parrott or TAs. Now you are responsible for your own lab assignment."
He said the snack obligation is his way of encouraging students to work collectively. It connects students who might not otherwise interact on a commuter campus, said the professor...
Parrott said he doesn't feel bad about asking college students to bring food to class. The cost, he says, is offset by savings – about $200 – which students realize by not having to buy a textbook for the course.
Saturday, November 12, 2011
How Important Are Snackies?
Everyone I work with knows that I like snackies. A little treat here and there goes a long way towards maintaining concord in life. We bring food for staff meetings, and a group of us has "tea club" during our break on Wednesdays. But in all cases the food is brought voluntarily! Requiring students to bring food? I cannot be the only person who thinks this guy is a nutjob, can I?
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12 comments:
I'm wondering if some enterprising lawyer could bring a class action lawsuit here. The students are paying their reg. fees to take classes. Does the university have any legal obligation to actually have a teacher show up for the classes (without being bribed) that the students have paid for? If this is okay, can the teacher ask/require that each student bring $1 to class and give it to the teacher?
-Mark Roulo
Ok, that's weird. A more NORMAL way, I think, to ask for snacks from kids is what my eldest son's Spanish teacher does.
Once a quarter, there is a party. Students research and prepare some sort of Mexican/Spanish dish to share. You do get a grade for participation, and if you have trouble with this (money-wise, etc.), consult with the teacher beforehand.
I'm supportive of that. :)
Classy guy.
If bringing food is somehow related to the content of the course, or somehow teaches them something that they need to succeed in the course, then maybe there is value. But, from what is written there appears to be nothing here but a professor run-amuck.
This is not quite as bad as my entire semester with a college english professor listening to him babble on about nonsense, then having one assignment the entire time, and that was to write a paper describing a paper clip....thats right, a paper clip. I got a B.
If administrators would start doing their job and get bad teachers out of the classroom, we wouldn't have stories like this...at any level.
I agree that food can bring people together and make an atmosphere more congenial. That is why I always (voluntarily) bring food to our monthly robotics club meetings. The club members, especially the college students, appreciate being fed. Generally, they don't have a lot of free cash lying around to spend on nonessentials. Many of them are still growing and they eat like bottomless pits. For a professor to insist on them paying some sort of food homage to him is unconscionable. I hope Psych 101 is not a requirement!!!
I, for one, do NOT want snackies of any kind in my classroom. Last year, thanks to someone leaving a package of popcorn under a table, we had the worst mouse infestation ever. They would NOT leave. And kids kept bringing and leaving candy so the problem continued until summer. It was disgusting-mouse droppings-they even at raw clay and plaster. Yuck. I think this professor is a nut.
I think the constant grazing by people at work/school is a "huge" problem. And I hate the classes at my school that regularly feature "cookie friday" and "donut tuesday."
And, yes, as your health affects my premiums and the cost of medicaid/medicare, your diet is my business.
Definitely a socialist view, but certainly not one I share.
The exercise was to "pay attention to details," not necessarily "bring me food." Lighten up on the guy.
Purely capitalist, my friend. Cost-benefit analysis.
When *my* diet concerns *you*, there's nothing capitalist about it. Even socialists can try to make cost-benefit analyses.
Darren . . . you do not pay the actual cost of your healthcare. Unless, you're exceptionally lucky. It's actually more or less. . .as it is for everyone else. If you don't pool health care costs, the sick can't afford it, and the healthy won't buy it. It's ALL about averaging costs. That has NOTHING to do with socialism. What would, is if the government were the provider. Mazenko is totally correct. Although, perhaps a little bit too upset about snackies.
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