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Wednesday, April 29, 2015

Failing the Entire Class

Irwin Horwitz had had enough. His students, he thought, weren't performing well academically and they were being disruptive, rude and dishonest. So he sent the students in his strategic management class an email:

"Since teaching this course, I have caught and seen cheating, been told to 'chill out,' 'get out of my space,' 'go back and teach,' [been] called a 'fucking moron' to my face, [had] one student cheat by signing in for another, one student not showing up but claiming they did, listened to many hurtful and untrue rumors about myself and others, been caught between fights between students…."

Horwitz said he would fail every single student. "None of you, in my opinion, given the behavior in this class, deserve to pass, or graduate to become an Aggie, as you do not in any way embody the honor that the university holds graduates should have within their personal character. It is thus for these reasons why I am officially walking away from this course. I am frankly and completely disgusted. You all lack the honor and maturity to live up to the standards that Texas A&M holds, and the competence and/or desire to do the quality work necessary to pass the course just on a grade level…. I will no longer be teaching the course, and all are being awarded a failing grade."

The same day Horwitz sent a similar email to the senior administrators of the university telling them what he had done, and predicting (correctly) that students would protest and claim he was being unfair. The students are "your problem now," Horwitz wrote.

The university has said that Horwitz's failing grades will not stand.

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7 comments:

Anonymous said...

the grades should stand!

Anonymous said...

awwwwwww - poor little pissant punks. going to cry to mama. I hope your school implodes from the socialist inspired policy your "leaders" allow. The state of our "seats of higher learnining" have gone all to hell and i hope the top offials go with them

Anonymous said...

Given the student loan payback situation the college is lucky just to have students enrolled.Graduating countless people with no job opportunities is bad enough.Throwing professors with a really bad attitude into the mix is the straw that broke the camels back.I feel for young people going to college these days.The numbers don't add up to the jobs needed.

Anonymous said...

Agree with 7:14 AM, those failing grades should absolutely stand. Out here in the real world are they going to tell people the same as what they were saying to their professor? They need to keep on failing too until they learn. This is a case where Mom & Dad should have told them to go get a switch so I can use it on your behind.

Anonymous said...

7:51
You are the problem.
Looks like you want to blame everyone for the misfortunes that befall folks instead of encouraging them to be better. Yes times are tough but it does not excuse these A$$e$ acting the way they did to the professor. He is not the one with the attitude here.

Anonymous said...

I once thought it would be fun to teach at the college level. But not after hearing about the behavior of some of the students one of my children teaches. They text, don't attend class, argue about grades, show disrespect and so on. I have decided it really would not be fun. I didn't behave like that when I was in college and neither did most of my peers. The ones that didn't get it were soon gone.

Anonymous said...

forget about failing the class, these brats are failing life.