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Goodbye Jesus

Students Insist On God In College - A Place To Post Examples


Orbit

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No citations = grade reduction, I'd say. :-)

I tried to find this issue on Snopes.com and came up empty-handed. I have never heard of such a case, and strongly suspect it is from a false Xtian meme the student saw on Facebook. I would have at least expected a citation to a newspaper article or something. Objectively, the rest of the presentation was underdeveloped, left out or gave scant treatment to required elements of the assignment, and was generally shoddy. No doubt when it gets a lowered grade for no citations and leaving out parts of the assignment, I will be accused of persecuting Christians.

 

 

You could offer to re-evaluate the paper if the student wishes to rewrite and include quality documentation as well as other required elements. That way, the emphasis is on scholarship, not content. If the student chooses not to rewrite, you have a defense for accusations. My own professors seemed not to have a problem with content so long as students met course requirements, which obviously included citations/support for one's argument and documentation.

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I think there is merit in alternative methods of testing comprehension; however, the ability to articulate ideas in written format is a critical skill. It remains quite important in the workplace as well. In health care, where I teach, the ability to accurately document and successfully communicate patient assessments, patient care and plans of care is critical for many reasons such as billing, medical-legal, continuity of care and so on. Additionally, with the push in evidence based medicine and clinical practice guidelines, it is critical to be able to communicate data and literature/research findings. Finally, it is important that students understand how to find and access valid sources of information to assist with clinical assessment and decision making. I can only assume this remains important in other fields as well.

 

Ultimately, with so much information available, people need to be able to successfully find valid sources and use them properly to develop arguments and rebuttals. I will admit that I do not grade specific formatting of references as harshly as I was graded as an undergrad. I'm less interested in the exact use of something like APA and more interested in the validity of the source and how it is used to support a specific argument.

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R. S. Martin's idea is a good one. I never liked the notion that any assignment was one shot at the grade. I always let my students re-do an assignment if they wanted to correct the errors and try for a better grade. Many times, I'd critique the product but withhold the grade and just tell them to do it again and fix the problems. There were a few times when I had a close relationship with a student who obviously threw a piece of garbage in my inbox and I'd just tell them that this was junk and a waste of their time to do it and my time to look at it, and to get with the program or find something else to do. Now I must reiterate that this can only be done with students you are certain can handle it. Some of those who got this treatment are still in contact with me 20 years later.

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 I always let my students re-do an assignment if they wanted to correct the errors and try for a better grade. 

Gawd, where were you in my school days. You must be popular amongst your students for giving them a second chance. To bad god doesn't-uhg

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Hey Orbit. I am going to assume a couple of things. First, I assume you are referring to an undergrad student. If this is the case, I assume you have developed a grading rubric for your students to use as they develop their papers. Simply follow the grading rubric and assign a grade that reflects how well the student met your standards that were outlined in said rubric. Clearly, failing to reference an assertion that appears to be the subject of the paper should be a show stopper in terms of grading.

 

In a word, yup.

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As long as this in the rants section, it gets really tiring when students say "bless you" or "have a blessed day" all the time. I know they mean well, and of course I am polite and appreciative when they do it, but it really gets on my nerves after a while. It just seems so arrogant.

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As long as this in the rants section, it gets really tiring when students say "bless you" or "have a blessed day" all the time. I know they mean well, and of course I am polite and appreciative when they do it, but it really gets on my nerves after a while. It just seems so arrogant.

I don't even say "bless you" when somebody sneezes.  Instead, I say, "Science save you."

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Orbit, do your students know you're atheist--are they rubbing it in or is this just their natural mode of operation? 

 

I ask because I personally find it easier to put up with religious rituals that I know are their natural mode of operation than the ones I know are specifically employed to impress and save the atheist. 

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Orbit, do your students know you're atheist--are they rubbing it in or is this just their natural mode of operation? 

 

I ask because I personally find it easier to put up with religious rituals that I know are their natural mode of operation than the ones I know are specifically employed to impress and save the atheist. 

They have no idea that I'm atheist. No one does.

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Some of you know I am a university professor teaching in a Sociology Department currently. Every semester I get some doozies, and here's one to share. The assignment was for a class on social movements, and they had to do a presentation designing and describing a social movement that they'd like to start. Here's the introduction to one of them:

 

"Many public libraries across the United States are beginning to remove The Bible and other Christian based books from their book collection, but allowing books on Atheism.

 

Removal of one religious preference is unfair and unjust.

 

Freedom of open religion is being impinged by removing Christian books from public places.

 

Public libraries are funded by tax payers, as a tax payer I have a right to show my grievance against libraries removing Christian based books. "

 

 

No citations, no backup, just flaming righteous opinion.

 

Ah, this is the worst. I can't speak from the experience of a professor with these types of students, but my eyes were truly opened once I first entered college at the freshman level. If I had thought that I had my stuff together as far as writing convincing essays, man was I terribly mistaken once I kept getting low marks on all of my research essays.

 

But it wasn't only because I was a Christian living in this sort of absolutes bubble, it was just the result of growing up in low quality public education. They don't challenge you, don't expect you to amount to anything, so they let you slide with the bare minimum. I finally got my act together senior year of high school, and took an AP English course. Still not the most academically rewarding. Focused more on analyzing literature than conducting research, argumentative papers. 

 

Needless to say, this was the time when I started to question my faith. I would give this student some time (biggrin.png  of course not in your class but in general) if they are willing to challenge themselves. Or they could quit like one Christian classmate of mine did not too long ago in a World Religions class I took just this semester. If usually presented with some contradictory evidence, they might go into this defense mode and yeah, will say that they are being attacked. 

 

Again, sorry you have to go through this. 

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Just to be clear, I don't walk around in a state of permanent distress about this kind of stuff, I just want to rant when it does happen.

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Guest Furball

Years ago i was watching one of those celebrity shows and some nut said god bless you to brad pitt and he just walked away laughing his ass off at the guy who said that to him. Kinda rude to laugh at the guy but at the same time, i probably would laugh too. -oh well

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  • 3 weeks later...

Latest example. On a discussion question requiring them to compare and contract functionalist and conflict theory's view of religion, two paragraphs on how evangelism gives life meaning. Sigh.

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Latest example. On a discussion question requiring them to compare and contract functionalist and conflict theory's view of religion, two paragraphs on how evangelism gives life meaning. Sigh.

 

give your student a zero.

 

If they cannot even write on topic (and I feel based on what you say here they totally missed the point of your assignment for them) then why should you accept their work. If I did this shit for money at work and totaly disregarded what my boss wanted of me and did it my own way without permission in the first place I would get written up. People get fired weekly where I work for this shit. 100 people get fired weekly for HIPPA violations that they knew better than to commit.

 

Sounds like this student does not understand the technique used to contrast and compare and fell back onto the only thing they did know. Or they are just this arrogant that they think they can hand in anything they like for a good grade. You should put them in their place just like the world would and give them a valuable lesson on following directions that will help others like me when this moron gets to the work force.

 

I hate working with people who clearly did not learn my field the same way I did or even a basic level but still seem to talk well enough to get jobs... all they really have a job in is making my job harder :(

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Here's another answer from this morning.

 

"Functionalism is connecting society together, serving a purpose in society. In religion, it connects everyone together. Religion helps put things in a certain point of view. All religions follow the bible. The bible is what brings society together. Conflict theory focuses on the inequality or power struggle. In religion, theorist only view the negative aspects of a certain religion. For example, Jehovah Witnesses don't celebrate holidays because the bible never talks about celebrating birthdays or Christmas. And the Jehovas Witnesses think it is wrong for everybody else to celebrate holidays. "

 

The real answer should have gone like this:

Functionalist theory states that all institutions work together to keep society running. To a functionalist, religion is simply another institution. A conflict theorist sees religion as part of the superstructure of society and says that it plays a specialized role in perpetuating inequality through the process of "mystification", which is when religion is used to draw people's attention away from the true causes of economic inequality.

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By any chance were these students home schooled?

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By any chance were these students home schooled?

That is a really good question. When students reveal to me that they were homeschooled, they are always the most socially awkward in the class, and lack critical thinking skills. I have yet to meet a well-prepared home-schooled college student.

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"Functionalism is connecting society together, serving a purpose in society. In religion, it connects everyone together. Religion helps put things in a certain point of view. All religions follow the bible. The bible is what brings society together. Conflict theory focuses on the inequality or power struggle. In religion, theorist only view the negative aspects of a certain religion. For example, Jehovah Witnesses don't celebrate holidays because the bible never talks about celebrating birthdays or Christmas. And the Jehovas Witnesses think it is wrong for everybody else to celebrate holidays. "

 

 

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  • 2 months later...

Ok guys, this one is fun. The class is "Sociology of Deviant Behavior". The essay question on the midterm was "Given the events at Abu Ghraib, discuss what made these events possible according to Reading 12 and the film "The Lucifer Effect". Now the reading has several organizational factors in the military that led to the situation, and the film "The Lucifer Effect" was about how the social context itself can make deviance more likely. Here an actual essay.

 

"What made these events possible was that the people that were effected by the devil [sic]. If the people were possessed by the devil then they felt they were unstoppable. People that felt they were possessed by the devil gave them what they wanted. People that engage in this act is because of they sold their soul to the devil then they would receive everything that they ever wanted. Normal people want to engage in this act because they see all of those people that are getting everything and they want to be a part of it. The factors that made it possible was that they knew that it was the only way they could be saved. This tells us about deviance is that people will go out of there [sic] way to get what they want. People may follow other people if they are promised big things for them in the future."

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The student comes across as someone who is about 10 years old, not 18 and allowed to vote, drive a car etc.

 

I am sad for your country.

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The student comes across as someone who is about 10 years old, not 18 and allowed to vote, drive a car etc.

 

I am sad for your country.

Fortunately there are 39 other students in the class who are not like this.

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The student comes across as someone who is about 10 years old, not 18 and allowed to vote, drive a car etc.

 

I am sad for your country.

Fortunately there are 39 other students in the class who are not like this.

 

That is good to know.  I wonder if this person was xian homeschooled?  (I'm not against homeschooling if it is secular and high quality though).

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I'm in an Introduction to Human Services and Counseling class this semester, and there are 2 guys in there that constantly have me rolling my eyes.  One thinks he can teach the class and loves to monologue.  When talking about personal limits he went on and on about how he didn't think he could set his faith aside during therapy. He felt it would be one of his greatest strengths, that he could offer that hope to his clients no matter what faith they are. Thankfully our professor is very secular and she tried to set him straight.

 

The other guy is in a wheel chair for life after a car accident, because... Jesus.  He wants to become a pastor and he brings god into any conversation.  This week we had to do a power point presentation on a local community resource.  Lots of great info on programs for domestic abuse, substance abuse, second chance after prison, etc. This guy chose his churches homeless outreach. We had to sit through 25 minutes of him talking about how they spread the word of god, the preaching and hymn singing, and prayer. (did he forget to mention that they feed them occasionally too?)  He had hymns playing in the background the whole time.  I really wanted to speak up, to ask how he thought prayer was going to help them rebuild their lives, but this guy obviously has a tough life and gets great comfort from religion.  Sadly it seemed like a lot of the class thought it was a great program.

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I'm in an Introduction to Human Services and Counseling class this semester, and there are 2 guys in there that constantly have me rolling my eyes.  One thinks he can teach the class and loves to monologue.  When talking about personal limits he went on and on about how he didn't think he could set his faith aside during therapy. He felt it would be one of his greatest strengths, that he could offer that hope to his clients no matter what faith they are. Thankfully our professor is very secular and she tried to set him straight.

 

The other guy is in a wheel chair for life after a car accident, because... Jesus.  He wants to become a pastor and he brings god into any conversation.  This week we had to do a power point presentation on a local community resource.  Lots of great info on programs for domestic abuse, substance abuse, second chance after prison, etc. This guy chose his churches homeless outreach. We had to sit through 25 minutes of him talking about how they spread the word of god, the preaching and hymn singing, and prayer. (did he forget to mention that they feed them occasionally too?)  He had hymns playing in the background the whole time.  I really wanted to speak up, to ask how he thought prayer was going to help them rebuild their lives, but this guy obviously has a tough life and gets great comfort from religion.  Sadly it seemed like a lot of the class thought it was a great program.

I wish there were counselling licensing boards that could filter these people out before the public is exposed to them.  Such regulation is often ineffective, because most people don't accept the damage that can be done by people who bring private religious beliefs into their work.  It's unethical, and it's sad that they don't see that.

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Orbit, can I transfer to your college?

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