Moral hazard
My heart sinks a little every time a professor announces that class participation will count towards your final grade. In a room with almost 80 people, that guarantees at least a handful who will take this as an incentive to make comments ranging from the inane to the know-it-all to the plain rude. You know the sort -
(names and events have been changed to protect my identity)
Professor: "Good morning class. By the way, call me Tom. I hate being called professor."
(Edward eagerly raises his hand)
Professor: "Yes, Edward?"
Edward: "Professor, good is a relative term. Also, it's unclear whether you're telling us that it's a good morning, or whether you're wishing us to have a good morning. Perhaps you can be more specific and say "I hope you'll have a productive morning" instead. I should know because I used to work closely with senior management in a top investment bank, and I greeted them this way every morning. By the way, you can call me Ed."
Professor: "I can think of several other things I'd rather call you."
My statistics professor has the right idea. You cannot earn points for class participation; you can only lose them. Asking pointless questions to show off or to somehow show up the professor is one good way to do so. Or should I say, productive.
posted by lecoqsportif @ 10:19 pm
4 Comments:
What kind of an ass says something like that when he knows it'll be graded?
He might as well slit his wrists and let himself bleed out.
You should watch more Apprentice. I think it's very helpful in this regard. The ones that win always take their time and measure their words before speaking up.
My personal belief is you just need to say one or two extremely interesting, thought-provoking or epiphany-provoking things. Then you just sit back. So you limit your verbal exposure, but leave a single strong impression. I have been doing this for client meetings where I'm not entirely comfortable or where I'm completely lost but cannot show it.
Also, you may notice that in the Apprentice, the overconfident ones always get kicked out, or trip up.
sounds like a certain corporate pseudo mba class i used to attend
Hairy, I have taken some liberties with what 'Edward' actually said in order not to let my 'new enemy' count outgrow my 'new friend' count, but rest assured that what he actually said was equally stupid and even more pretentious. The prof seems to have singled him out for future ragging though, so as is well.
The Apprentice analogy is spot-on for group work, but more on that in a future post.
Sadly, unless the prof specifically says unproductive class participation will count against you, it won't. Just about everybody will get around the same class participation grades except those who haven't said a word in class all semester. However, the vociferously vacuous will get their come-uppance from his/her peers in due time. Cabaret, champagne parties, locker room bitching ... plenty of opportunities.
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