Professor's snack demand from students nixed

[Liberal_in_LA]

Professor's snack demand from students nixed


SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A California university professor can no longer demand snacks from students taking his psychology classes.

Sacramento State professor George Parrott has demanded snacks from his students for 39 years. Students were told of the snack demand on the first day of class. But two weeks ago he walked out of his Psychology 101 lab class because there were no snacks.

University spokeswoman Kimberly Nava says members of the psychology department at California State University, Sacramento decided Parrott's decision to walk out of class was unacceptable and the dean told him to stop.

http://www.daytondailynews.com/lifestyle/professors-snack-demand-from-students-nixed-1288728.html.

[FarCenter]

1. Outstanding Teacher: George Parrott

One of the first things you notice in psychology professor George Parrott’s office is the cot, to which he makes a humorous allusion to the couch used by the father of modern psychoanalysis.

“If it was good enough for Freud, it’s good enough for me,” Parrott jokes.

Actually, as a runner, Parrott uses the cot to do stretching exercises, but noted it also provides extra room for students to sit down when he has more than a couple of them in his office.

http://www.csus.edu/bulletin/bulletin052107/bulletinprofileInc.stm

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Sure...

[shanti]

22. i thought i might have had him as a prof

when i attended CSUS, but apparently not, or i'd have remembered this "rule". i'm surprised it took people this long to rebel.

[virgogal]

2. This is joke,right? Right?

[burrowowl]

29. No, it was on NPR

Wait Wait Don't Tell me in the which story is true.

[MineralMan]

3. Hmm...if I was taking his class, I'd pick out all the vomit-flavored

and booger-flavored jelly beans from the Botts Every-Flavor Beans bag and give those to him for his snack. Psychology at work. I suspect he might stop demanding snacks after that experience. He is teaching Psychology, after all.

[KittyWampus]

24. we're on the same wavelength. This would be like a challenge. Surprised students didn't

live up to it.

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

4. Well, he's nuts of course.

[leveymg]

5. I had a professor who made the same request. It was voluntary and harmless.

The guy simply enjoyed receiving sweets -- much like a pet gets snacks. He encouraged students to share with each other. Nobody got marked down because they didn't show up with cupcakes.

[Liberal_in_LA]

6. voluntary and harmless until he walked out of class!

[Broderick]

8. What is he? Like 6?

Good grief. No business teaching if he acts like this imo.

[BeHereNow]

16. Sharing, what a socialist attitiude! Off with his head!

http://www.sacbee.com/2011/11/23/4074957/sac-state-students-dont-have-to.html#ixzz1eX4BwJqD

Read the comments about him and consider how some of the
comments about him here on DU sound just like what
the MSM might have to say when reporting this...

Hard to tell the difference, isn't it?

BHN

[JoePhilly]

7. The fine line between "eccentric, engaging professor" ... and "nut job"

appears to have been breached.

[hunter]

9. Great. He's probably a space alien who will now clear the planet of human life.

For 39 years Professor Parrot has been postponing our extermination. But now that he's had a class where NOBODY, not ONE student gave him a snack and he's decided humans are a trash species no better than feral hogs rooting through a lovely garden.

Seriously, nobody had a snack? Think about that, you sanctimonious twits, as armies of laser eyed terminator robots are raging through your neighborhoods incinerating everyone.

[Gin]

10. with a name like Parrot...bring him bird seeds....IMO

[hunter]

25. They're lucky he wasn't a Brontornis.

Missing his snack, he might have eaten a student.



These guys were 9 feet tall and weighed 800 pounds.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brontornis

[varelse]

27. this reply is

awesome :)

[JVS]

11. You need to bring snacks to a psych 101 lab, it should go without saying.

[surrealAmerican]

12. He probably had to leave ...

... because he was salivating too much.

[7wo7rees]

13. Lookee here, teach...

Got you some duck sausage.

[BeHereNow]

14. I love this guy... y'all need to read more about him.

http://www.sacbee.com/2011/11/23/4074957/sac-state-students-dont-have-to.html#ixzz1eX4BwJqD

The "snack" routine was to encourage the students team work and cooperation.
If only we could all be so lucky to have such a wise educator in our lives.
I knew a few and they are the ones who shaped me.

If you read the comments, you will see that he has touched many lives
in very important ways.

Sad that here on DU, the comments about this man sound like a chorus of uninformed conservatives.
Focus on the knee jerk and ignore the details and motivations of this man.

Shame on some of you...

BHN

[muriel_volestrangler]

17. You're right - we do need to read more. Where can we?

Because that article you link to doesn't provide justification for him walking out. Is his teaching so bad that it doesn't actually matter if he's there or not? Or is it just that he's OK with wasting many hours of other people's time just to keep up his eccentric reputation?

[BeHereNow]

18. Did you read the comments by former students?

I think the comments by his students tell me all I need to know.

He told the class in the beginning that if they were not
willing to participate in the activity that they would not
have him or access to the TAs for his class and that it was up
to them to create their own lab project.

I'd say he had a class of self centered clueless young adults
and he left them on their own to fail that day.
Perhaps awaken some sort of consciousness in them about
the importance of other people- a much needed lesson
in many young adults I know these days.

I applaud him for teaching critical thinking and the awareness
that their actions affect other people.

BHN

[muriel_volestrangler]

19. I'd say he teaches people what it's like to have a self-centered boss

who imposes silly conditions on those he can order around, and leaves them in the lurch if something goes wrong. One sort of life lesson, I suppose, but this bunch who stood up to him and complained when he walked out have learnt the lesson properly - don't let arseholes boss you about unreasonably just because they're senior to you - get some solidarity and stand up to them.

[Name removed]

23. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[LisaL]

30. Considering he is being paid a salary, I fail to see

how he can refuse to teach if the students don't bring snacks.

[Liberal_in_LA]

21. thanks for the additional info

[hunter]

26. I'm with you. WTF?

If anything, it's funny.

If I was the dean I could solve this problem in a second. I'd simply tell any student who felt cheated out of a class to show up at the professor's office hours for a special make-up assignment.

The odds are good not a single student would show.

[BeHereNow]

28. Not ONE zealot trashing him on this thread has taken the time to READ

what his students have to say about him.
Glowing praise for his influence on their lives.

I feel like I've entered the twilight zone on DU now and then.
This thread is one of those times.

Fuck the FACTS- eh?
Fuck the personal testimonies about his impact on student lives-
Nah- just trash the guy, ignore the personal experiences and testimonies
from his students.

THIS is what is wrong with education today- (along with many other systems)
too many uninformed people trying to create reality as they wish it to be, not as it is.
Akin to the gay bashers and pro choice rhetoric spewing morons.

Do you think talk radio some how infiltrates certain brains, with hate fest air waves,
while certain people are sleeping?

Sometimes, I really wonder, because half the time I sincerely
think I am listening to/reading a Fox "News" commentator when I read
some of the posts on certain threads

BHN

[muriel_volestrangler]

31. You are the one supporting the authority figure, against the young people

whom he was meant to be teaching. In this situation, he is the '1%', demanding his privileges, and punishing people he has power over when he doesn't get them - and you are supporting him against the 99%. All that's happened is that he's been told to do the job he was paid to do, in future, rather than walking out on it.

Your 'Fox News' remarks are out of line. As for 'gay bashers and pro choice rhetoric spewing morons' - wow, that's a new low for you. You are the one whose 'reality' seems to ignore that the prof decided to go and have breakfast rather than do his teaching job - and you think others are 'what is wrong with education'? How the hell has anything said on this thread been akin to 'gay bashing'? Are you calling anyone on this thread 'morons'?

The comments from his alleged previous students sound rather like those who advocate corporal punishment, to me - "he did it to me, it didn't harm me, did me the world of good, in fact". A psychology professor telling his students to obey his whims, and telling them that if he walks out, it's their fault, sounds very unhealthy to me. He's playing the role of a manipulative spouse.

[BeHereNow]

33. MVS- you crack me up.

Obviously, you STILL have not read the comments from his students.
You appear to be hell bent on protecting the story in your head from
what IS.
There are many details about this story that you simply have not
taken the time to investigate.

Hmmm.
Okay then.
Carry on.
With out me.
BHN

[SoCalDem]

15. My Medieval History professor

every class he would call a random student to the stage.

that student pulled any coin from his/her pocket

they flipped it..

heads.....a quiz on last session's homework
tails...no quiz

[ellisonz]

32. That's brilliant.

[Xithras]

20. I don't require snacks from my students, but contributing to my tip jar...

...will get you pushed to the head of the line during office hours :spank:

Seriously, I use the cash in the tip jar to keep the coffee pot full and the supplies stocked. The coffee pot sits on a department cart, and I wheel it into my classroom for student use during lectures. My CS lectures can be incredibly dry and boring, so the coffee helps to keep them awake. My students love me for it :)

I'd never require it though. When the tip jar gets low, I do make a point to mention it, and remind students that the coffee goes away once the jar is empty. This guy went a bit too far when he turned a friendly requirement into a big issue and walked out on his class. Those students are mandated to have a minimum number of instruction hours for their course credit, and by doing so he deprived them of those hours.