First class

Two weeks ago, October 9, I had my first class – with Prof. J-. Title of the class: “Major Contemporary International Issues (Grands Enjeux Contemporains Internationaux).” It was a three hour class, held every other Friday morning. About a hundred students were in the room, and the prof used a mic to make himself heard. I quickly realized that this wasn’t just because of the number of students – he really needed the mic to make himself heard over the numerous private conversations going on during class time. People were talking to their neighbors, to those in front or behind them, without even worrying about keeping their voices down!

After about twenty minutes I realized why so many students weren’t paying attention to the prof – he wasn’t really saying anything of interest… This guy doesn’t teach, he thinks out loud. During the three hour class, he basically said the following:

The most important international issue is currently the financial crisis. Most if not all analysts are unable to make head or tail of it because they aren’t differentiating the two world systems have clashed. These are; 1. the world capitalist economy, 2. the inter-state system. Until now, states (countries) have controlled the economy, but currently the reverse is occurring.

That’s mostly paraphrase, but the point is that he could have said that in fifteen to twenty minutes when in fact he took three hours. Unbelievably boring. He would begin a point, I would get my pen ready to take notes, and then he would start to have a side-idea that he would expound on, and then another and another. Example:

We must, as social scientists, create models. A good model will be able to describe and predict. But wait – not predict everything! A model, for example, won’t be able to predict why this student in the front row is wearing something red in her hair. Maybe she got out of bed and felt like she need red to cheer herself up. Maybe she always wears something red in her hair. Maybe she trying to attract the young man at the back. Maybe… Who knows, there are many possibilities… And maybe for her, she does want the model to be able to explain to her why she decided to wear something red in her hair. Maybe all of you in the class need a model to explain why she is wearing something red in her hair. In that case, maybe you can create one. But that’s not what I’m talking about.

The whole class was like that. Furthermore, near the end of the class he implied that banks were the culprits behind the assassinations of Lincoln and JFK. Supposedly, Lincoln needed money for the Civil War, so he asked to borrow from banks. The banks proposed a huge interest rate, which infuriated him. He got so angry that he was preparing some sort of measure that would limit the powers of banks. Shortly afterwards he was killed, and his successor immediately reversed the measures. JFK tried to do something similar, he was also shot, and his successor (who he mistakenly claimed was Ford) also reversed the measures. “I’m not stating who killed the president. But you’ll notice that there is a pattern…”

It’s unfortunate really, because he really is remarkably intelligent. He knows a ton of stuff on almost everything, from social science to history to the hard sciences… He would be great one on one, but he can’t really teach. Fortunately, my other classes haven’t been that way!

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~ by Carnildo on October 23, 2009.