Earthtalk

Re “At N.Y.U., Students Were Failing Organic Chemistry. Who Was to Blame?” (Education, October 4): Regardless of who is to blame for the poor student performance in Professor Jones’ class, firing him is a classic example of administrative overreaction. As an untenured, 84-year old professor, administrators appear to have taken the easy way out by firing him. A key factor is Professor Jones’ observation that about a decade earlier he noticed a loss of focus in students. I noticed the same phenomenon starting about 15 years ago in the university students I taught, long before the deleterious impact of the pandemic on students’ performance. Many of my colleagues around the country have noticed the same change. Something bigger has been going on, something societal in scope. Over-pampering of children by parents and teachers combined with soaring tuition has turned students into entitled customers demanding to be catered to as such. The student-professor interaction has become far more transactional than in previous years, with administrators increasingly inclined to side with their customers. Students expect their professors to be like either Mr. Rogers or Stephen Colbert and woe to those less entertaining ones who dare to assign poor performers the grades they deserve.

To the Editor: Over the past year I have spent numerous days in a prestigious hospital, where I am continuously impressed by the dedication and courage of the nurses, doctors and other staff. My wife and I recently engaged a nurse in conversation about patients who refuse to be vaccinated. Their refusal put her and her colleagues at great risk, and she was angry, fed up with the senselessness of it. She spoke of patients who refused a diagnosis of Covid-19 right up to the moment they died from it. As an immunocompromised elderly person, I, too, am angered by the anti-vaccine, maskless crowd putting my life at risk. Their so-called “freedom” is my imprisonment, forcing me to avoid grocery stores, restaurants, subways and any other venue where people gather. Politicians and others who, for political gain, fan the flames of this resistance are responsible for thousands of avoidable deaths and need to be held accountable, starting at the ballot box. NY Times 12-20-21