Prof. Safe Space Prepares Students for Life in a Parallel Universe

Stress reduction policy

Emotional reactions to stressful situations can have profound consequences for all involved. In order to avoid such situations in this class, the following policies will apply:

• All tests and exams will be open book and open notes, including the use of material on your laptop.
• All tests and exams will be designed to be completed in half the allotted time by the majority of students.
• All tests and exams will be designed to assess low level mastery of the course material.
• If you feel unduly stressed by a grade for any assessable material or the overall course, you can email the instructor indicating what grade you think is appropriate, and it will be so changed. No explanation is required, but it is requested that you consider waiting 24 hours before emailing the instructor.
• If in a group meeting, you feel stressed by your group’s dynamics, you should leave the meeting immediately and need offer no explanation to the group members. Furthermore, you can request to discontinue all further group work and your grade will be based totally on non-group work.
• Only positive comments about presentations will be given in class. Comments designed to improve future presentations will be communicated by email.

While this policy might hinder the development of group skills and mastery of the class material, ultimately these are your responsibility. I will provide every opportunity for you to gain high level mastery.

Source: Archive.org

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Please note that the University of Georgia did get wind of this and put a stop to it. So this policy above is no longer active in the classroom, but there was an archived syllabus of the original policy available, which you can see at the source link.

If this doesn't scare you, it should. While I'm glad the prof. did away with the policy, you know damn well it will probably still be enacted carefully, just not written down for the students. 

This is a bad policy on so many levels. College is a place for prepping for the real world, which is going to come screeching in to these students a lot sooner than they may realize. None of this stuff can be active in a job, and in all honesty, things like this are why so many employers are getting scared to hire this generation of graduates. If they get in college, they're going to expect it in life. And businesses can't function like this. No, not even the ones with extreme leftist CEOs. 

When I was in college - and please note, it wasn't that long ago, I graduated in 2003 - I had a teacher that was considered to be "fluffy." He was the equivalent of this teacher in harder times. I loved this teacher, because I knew what he was doing... and I took 14 classes with him. He was, thankfully, the head of the department I majored in. 

He was considered "fluffy" because he gave no homework and didn't do exams. At all. In any class. And a lot of students signed up for his classes thinking it was going to be a breeze.

Most of those students dropped the class after the first week. 

We didn't need exams and homework. The work load in this class was amazingly difficult. He had us working constantly. There was a lot of roll playing, props, sending us out into the campus to talk to strangers, etc. We worked hard in that class. So hard. We learned a lot. Literature. Deductive reasoning. Problem solving. Social skills. History. Creative writing. Journalistic writing. We learned the world was not always a friendly place. 

I got sent out into the world to interview someone who was unfriendly. I found a guy who... well, let's just say this was the first time I met someone who openly hated white people. It wasn't as cool on college campuses then as it is now. But this guy was my age, African American. And he was known to very much dislike white people. I got extra credit because I managed to get him to sit down with me, alone, and talk to me about what he believed. For a solid hour. And made him a friend. Not a good friend, but we said hello to each other, and once in a while he sat with me while he ate lunch, much to the shock of everyone around us. 

But this teacher was under constant fire from the school for being "fluffy." No exams and no homework amounted to us doing nothing and getting easy grades. 

Boy, how things have changed! This guy would be a downright tyrant now. 

I'll never forget my "fluffy" teacher, though. I learned more from him in a few years than I learned in my entire education. Yeah, I learned a lot about my chosen major, but I also learned a lot about life, overcame personal hurdles, etc. from this teacher. And that's what you are supposed to get from college, preparation for the real world. He loved his students and wanted us all to succeed, but he made us pass or fail on our own. Whatever grade you got, you earned it. And when you left the class you knew you deserved whatever grade you got. 

I hated school. I skipped class often. But I took 14 classes with this guy... and I missed one day. He called me that day, too - as did most of my classmates - because it was assumed I was dead if I missed one of his classes. 

If you are a teacher, be this guy. Don't be Prof. Safe Space up there. Be the teacher that students walk out of the class loving you or hating you with no middle ground, but they all learned something about life and know it. Make them earn their grade, because they will either improve or feel really good about themselves and strive to keep that feeling alive through their education. Have your students leave college ready for reality. 

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