Ever wondered why tertiary education has lost its appeal and respect in recent years? One reason may be the slipping quality of the educators.
Recently I witnessed a conversation between student and educator regarding ideas for creating an "educational" website, whereby the student was seeking tutor approval for an assignment idea.
The married-divorced middle-aged woman made the suggestion of a "teaching kit for the perfect burnout, aimed at age group 15 years and 9 months and over" - in other words - Learner drivers.
There were a few expressions of distaste by other students, as you would expect, but the big surprise came later when the subject tutor responded with a laugh and said, "just so you know, I'll be marking you on your site's ability to teach, without making ethical judgements on what it is exactly that you're teaching. If you're after public acceptance perhaps you could tune your burnout idea to something more like 'Safe hoon practises, how to perform a figure 8 without knocking over any letterboxes'".
While most students backed off after this tutor response, one student pointed out that not only were there ethical concerns regarding the topic, but also legal concerns.
Maybe the tutor started to realise the unprofessionalism in his response after this, but it did not stop him from yet another ridiculously immature response where he proclaimed, "I wasn't really advocating a burnout website, didn't you see my little winking smiley face".
So now, we not only have educators encouraging illegal and dangerous activities, but we are also meant to be playing the "wink-wink, nudge-nudge" game with them, too.
The student (did I mention middle-aged woman?) continued to argue for her idea to teach burnouts to children who have not yet even obtained their licences by stating, very philosophically, "to me, driving is not just about parallel parking and hill starts".
I do not really understand why the dangers of cars and driving need to be explained to a grown woman, but I guess they come in all ages and sizes.
Driving is not all about parallel parking and hill starts - it is about transportation. It is not a game. It is a sport only to the highly trained who are performing on specified tracks, not on public streets.
And, Mr. University Educator, what about the guide on doing that burnout "without knocking over any letterboxes" with the "Part 2" of also missing the small child playing in their driveway next to that letterbox?
What kind of selfish individual puts their own desire for an adrenalin rush over the safety of others? And how can we ever expect to eradicate these problems from society when we have people like this in so-called positions of influence who cannot understand the seriousness behind advocating such behaviour?
