Negative Stuff

BIOLOGY IS ABOUT THE ANIMAL KINGDOM. NOT CULTURE, NOT JUST HUMAN BEINGS.

Feb 25, 2022

Let me just give you this excerpt from my professor's syllabus. This is for General Biology, which is for non-majors.

Here is the "Course Goals" section (Idfk why he couldn't just put it in bullet points, but whatever):

"One of the major goals of the General Biology Program is to move the thinking of students from simplistic forms in which a person construes the world in unqualified polar terms of absolute right-wrong, good-bad, true-false to those complex thought forms through which students generally undertake to affirm their own commitments in a world of contingent knowledge and relative values. As topics progress, students will be expected to move from dependency on the instructor to tell them which facts to learn, which theories to understand, etc., to the skill of learning to solve problems and answer questions on their own. Eventually the student will be expected to handle a position that will recognize that an answer can be called "right" only in the light of its context and that contexts or frames of reference differ. The student should learn to assume that several interpretations of natural events, theories or observations in general may be legitimate depending on the point of view and data available. Operational judgment and assessment by the student will be based on the internal coherence, scope, fit of data and predictive power of any conclusion. This discovery of diversity and relativity is the essence of the liberal arts education and the major theme of this science course.

"Relevant and controversial topics have purposely been included for study in the General Biology Program. Inclusion or exclusion of certain points of view are in no way intended to reflect the beliefs of the course staff, Department of Biology or the University[...]. Nor is it the objective of the presentation of these topics to coerce students into changing or modifying their initial positions. Rather, controversial topics are used as a format with which to show how scientific principles are applied in the examination of current problems and concerns. Individuals with dogmatic views, prejudices, or extremely conservative belief systems may feel less threatened by taking this course at another time. General Biology 1012 is offered each semester, including summer, in both day and evening time slots."

... All right, let's strip this stupidity down, shall we? "One of the [...] goals of [this course] is to move the thinking of students from simplistic forms in which a person construes the world in unqualified polar terms of absolute right-wrong, good-bad, true-false to those complex thought forms through which students generally undertake to affirm their own commitments in a world of contingent knowledge and relative values. [...] Eventually the student will be expected to handle a position that will recognize that an answer can be called "right" only in the light of its context and that contexts or frames of reference differ."

So basically, thinking that something is black and white is "simplistic thinking," and thinking that EVERYTHING is a range (i.e. shades of gray) is "complex thinking." So I guess if I call a sea anemone a human, that would be correct in the right context. (throws the frigging table) UNLESS WE'RE TALKING ABOUT FICTION IN WHICH WE HAVE A SEA ANEMONE-HUMAN HYBRID, THAT IS 100% FALSE!!! YOU'RE AN IDIOT, PROFESSOR!!! BLACK, WHITE, AND GRAY ALL EXIST! IT'S NOT BLACK AND WHITE OR SHADES OF GRAY; IT'S BOTH!!

Constructive Criticism (i.e. the polite way of saying this is inaccurate and stupid): Rather than moving from black and white to shades of gray, you could say that your goal is to move students' thinking to knowing where shades of gray exist. That would be an appropriate goal. Now let's move on, shall we?