what do you do? Because my anthropology class is fun-ish except for these spurts where my instructor says something that is just not right.
At first the class had a substitute. Ok so she was a sub so I didn't really interrogate her... but it was clear she didn't know what she was talking about. She also annoyed me. Made the same joke about football players being Neanderthals about 3 times. Which rubs me the wrong way, because I inferred that she thought that people who would play such a brutal game must be primitive idiots, blah blah. Maybe I was reading too much into it, everyone's sense of humor is different, so I ignored it.
Then she hit me with this, while discussing what defines a species:
"House cats and skunks can actually interbreed, because they are in the same family." I was half asleep and that woke me up lol. I didn't say anything because the class was about to end and I didn't want to embarrass her. But seriously, don't teach stuff you READ IN A CHAIN EMAIL. Head. on. desk.
I wouldn't even have attended her lectures if it weren't for the fact that she said she was going to talk about stuff that wasn't in the text and then include in on the midterm.
Whatever. She is now gone.
The actual course instructor is back. I like him much more and he was actually in Africa excavating remains so he knows what he's talking about in that respect. He makes little jabs like the acronym DINKS and people who drive expensive SUV's and cars compensating, etc. But whateves.
But why the stupid little anecdotes. He was talking about primate behavior and decided to draw a parallel to dogs.
"So many dogs I see run the households. The owners aren't the leaders. You know what you do when you want to establish who's boss? You take the dog and you force it to the floor on it's back and pin it there until it submits, and then you pee on it. *chuckles* Why? Because that's what wolves do. Now we might not pee on them, but that's how you establish dominance..."
That is paraphrased, but pretty accurate. I am not exaggerating at all.
Today he said that chimpanzees are unique because they have the foresight to collect suitable rocks to make tools. I said some research shows crows save good tools for future use. He says oh yeah, New Guinea crows. I say, New Caledonian crows. He says yeah but it's different, because the chimp showed foresight. If you don't ACTUALLY know WTF I'm talking about just say so!!!
I hate that they say these anecdotal "facts" but because they're OT so neither he nor the rest of the class wants to have to a discussion about them. For the Alpha roll thing I just said "Actually some of the newest research shows that the subordinate wolf rolls over completely voluntarily when intimidated by the dominant wolf." Which I felt was succinct and debased his alpha roll theory.
UGH I feel like a nitpicker but I don't like to ignore stupid **** either.
At first the class had a substitute. Ok so she was a sub so I didn't really interrogate her... but it was clear she didn't know what she was talking about. She also annoyed me. Made the same joke about football players being Neanderthals about 3 times. Which rubs me the wrong way, because I inferred that she thought that people who would play such a brutal game must be primitive idiots, blah blah. Maybe I was reading too much into it, everyone's sense of humor is different, so I ignored it.
Then she hit me with this, while discussing what defines a species:
"House cats and skunks can actually interbreed, because they are in the same family." I was half asleep and that woke me up lol. I didn't say anything because the class was about to end and I didn't want to embarrass her. But seriously, don't teach stuff you READ IN A CHAIN EMAIL. Head. on. desk.
I wouldn't even have attended her lectures if it weren't for the fact that she said she was going to talk about stuff that wasn't in the text and then include in on the midterm.
Whatever. She is now gone.
The actual course instructor is back. I like him much more and he was actually in Africa excavating remains so he knows what he's talking about in that respect. He makes little jabs like the acronym DINKS and people who drive expensive SUV's and cars compensating, etc. But whateves.
But why the stupid little anecdotes. He was talking about primate behavior and decided to draw a parallel to dogs.
"So many dogs I see run the households. The owners aren't the leaders. You know what you do when you want to establish who's boss? You take the dog and you force it to the floor on it's back and pin it there until it submits, and then you pee on it. *chuckles* Why? Because that's what wolves do. Now we might not pee on them, but that's how you establish dominance..."
That is paraphrased, but pretty accurate. I am not exaggerating at all.
Today he said that chimpanzees are unique because they have the foresight to collect suitable rocks to make tools. I said some research shows crows save good tools for future use. He says oh yeah, New Guinea crows. I say, New Caledonian crows. He says yeah but it's different, because the chimp showed foresight. If you don't ACTUALLY know WTF I'm talking about just say so!!!
I hate that they say these anecdotal "facts" but because they're OT so neither he nor the rest of the class wants to have to a discussion about them. For the Alpha roll thing I just said "Actually some of the newest research shows that the subordinate wolf rolls over completely voluntarily when intimidated by the dominant wolf." Which I felt was succinct and debased his alpha roll theory.
UGH I feel like a nitpicker but I don't like to ignore stupid **** either.