Status Report on my life
I was called to the carpet today at 11am for an e-mail exchange I had with a "professor" (I use the term loosely since she is an idiot) earlier in the month. Allow me to quote the e-mail exchange here:
Done as in no longer attending. Withdrawal with a WP is a perfect solution.
----- Original Message -----
From: Katherine McCaffrey
Date: Saturday, March 7, 2009 11:17 am
Subject: Re: : ANTH230_01SP09
To: Robert D D Wettengel
> Robert-
> I'm not sure what you mean when you say that you are done with
> my course. It is clear that the class is not meeting your
> expectations. However, it is not your prerogative to define the
> parameters or content of my class. Furthermore, I
> don't believe it is productive or useful to respond to the
> obstreperous content of your letter, so I will not engage you in
> nastiness.You have a number of options including dropping the
> class, or withdrawing from the class with a WP. If you choose to
> take the latter route, I will complete the necessary
> paperworks. Let me know your intentions.
> Dr. McCaffrey
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Robert D D Wettengel
> Date: Friday, March 6, 2009 3:34 pm
> Subject: : ANTH230_01SP09
> To: ANTH230_01SP09: ;
>
> > I am done with your course. I find the materials you have
> > selected to be far beyond your knowledge-base, your class
> format
> > to be insulting to a serious intellectual and your
> expectations
> > to be far too--I really can't put it into words, but I'm
> going
> > to give it a try--nebulous.
> >
> > I left slavishly parroting what some other author writes
> behind
> > when I entered the 7th-grade. To have this sort of
> ridiculous
> > nonsense played-out at any institution of higher learning
> is
> > pathetically laughable and any intellectual should view it
> with
> > scorn and contempt. And pseudo-intellectuals like you
> should be
> > terminated.
> > You had told me that Glover's book is "simplistic." Why
> would a
> > serious scholar assign a "simple" book? To paraphrase Obi-
> Wan
> > Kenobi: Who's more simple: the one who writes a simple book
> or
> > the simpleton who assigns it? Glover's errors of fact are
> > jarring as is his infuriating repetition without any regard
> at
> > all for the historical narrative. The fact that you merely
> wish
> > to parrot this speaks volumes to me about about the depths--
> or,
> > rather, lack thereof--of your own intellectual faculties.
> >
> > Up to this point, your course has not been about
> Anthropology,
> > it has been about twentieth-century history--too bad its
> the
> > Cliff's Notes version. I was expecting to be reading
> several
> > ethnographies or some sort of compilation of essays written
> by
> > Anthropologists discussing warfare from a cross-cultural
> > perspective. Instead I get a history course, and a shoddy
> one
> > at that.
> >
> > You have not mentioned the word culture once. There has
> been no
> > serious attention paid to the psycho-cultural differences
> > between civilian and military life in a sustained,
> > methodological way beyond the simplistic "brain-washing"
> non-
> > explanation explanation. Isn't this something that should
> be a
> > primary focus in a course entitled The ANTHROPOLOGY of
> Conflict
> > and Violence? As opposed to, say, HIST-204 The Second World War?
> >
> > The experiences I have had with female instructors has not
> been
> > good. I have only had one who I would say is competent, and
> I
> > plan on thanking her for being competent, as she is a
> credit to
> > both her gender in particular and academia in general. Have
> > women entered into the professoriat because they are truly
> > competent enough to do so or is political-correctness and
> > affirmative action setting-up students to be taught by
> fools
> > with advanced degrees? If the reason is the latter,
> students
> > are being robbed of a quality education so school
> administrators
> > can squawk to politicians about how there are new
> opportunities
> > for (insert whatever group here).
>
> Katherine T. McCaffrey, Ph.D.
> General Editor, Anthropology Now
> Department of Anthropology
> Montclair State University
> Montclair, New Jersey 07043
The Dean of Students was most displeased and started off her comments to me with: "I've been in higher education longer than you've been alive" so this artificial appeal to authority is my signal to tune-out, which is something that I have perfected to an art-form. I am capable of maintaining a poker-face, with my mind only engaged to hear every third or fourth word so I know when to nod, while my brain pursues more worthwhile inquiries.
She read this e-mail back to me verbatim. If one is going to do this, it is best to read the letter beforehand and practice if necessary. Dean Howell stumbled over several words including intellectual and Anthropology. I would imagine McCaffrey and her must share the same gerbil or exercise wheel. If you're going to throw credentials in my face, please ensure that you know how to use the English language--so that your credibility isn't destroyed in my eyes.
She must have consulted a thesaurus to have been able to use all those synonyms for respect that she threw at me. I wasn't impressed. Learn how to pronounce words that any intelligent person should be able to pronounce, use and define--then get back to me. Perhaps what I witnessed was what psychologists term projection and transference. Dean Howell may have been shown heinous disrespect at some point in her life and this was now her chance to express her anger or perhaps McCaffrey cried to her about it.
If I had not perfected the poker-face I previously described, I think I would have been in a lot deeper shit after this meeting than before. I believe it is a well known fact that I do not tolerate fools, nor have any patience for them. If I was not able to disengage my mind, put basic reactions to verbal stimuli on auto-pilot and use the time to ponder more pressing concerns, I suspect that I wouldn't have been able to keep a straight-face while she was speaking or resist the urge to crack-off a salute and declare: "Heil Mein Fuehrer-ette!"
Fortunately, the Dean only lectured me for about three minutes. The man who I met with for the other forty minutes couldn't have been nicer. He even complemented me on such a well-written letter and was very pleased to have read it due to the absence of profanity and other vulgarities. Then he told me that he wanted to be a history professor and we talked shop for a half-hour--state of the discipline, I recommended a few books and fun stuff like that.
My other classes, with the exception of The Anthropology of Conflict and Violence (which I had with this terminal-degree awarded quack) are going swimmingly.
Done as in no longer attending. Withdrawal with a WP is a perfect solution.
----- Original Message -----
From: Katherine McCaffrey
Date: Saturday, March 7, 2009 11:17 am
Subject: Re: : ANTH230_01SP09
To: Robert D D Wettengel
> Robert-
> I'm not sure what you mean when you say that you are done with
> my course. It is clear that the class is not meeting your
> expectations. However, it is not your prerogative to define the
> parameters or content of my class. Furthermore, I
> don't believe it is productive or useful to respond to the
> obstreperous content of your letter, so I will not engage you in
> nastiness.You have a number of options including dropping the
> class, or withdrawing from the class with a WP. If you choose to
> take the latter route, I will complete the necessary
> paperworks. Let me know your intentions.
> Dr. McCaffrey
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Robert D D Wettengel
> Date: Friday, March 6, 2009 3:34 pm
> Subject: : ANTH230_01SP09
> To: ANTH230_01SP09: ;
>
> > I am done with your course. I find the materials you have
> > selected to be far beyond your knowledge-base, your class
> format
> > to be insulting to a serious intellectual and your
> expectations
> > to be far too--I really can't put it into words, but I'm
> going
> > to give it a try--nebulous.
> >
> > I left slavishly parroting what some other author writes
> behind
> > when I entered the 7th-grade. To have this sort of
> ridiculous
> > nonsense played-out at any institution of higher learning
> is
> > pathetically laughable and any intellectual should view it
> with
> > scorn and contempt. And pseudo-intellectuals like you
> should be
> > terminated.
> > You had told me that Glover's book is "simplistic." Why
> would a
> > serious scholar assign a "simple" book? To paraphrase Obi-
> Wan
> > Kenobi: Who's more simple: the one who writes a simple book
> or
> > the simpleton who assigns it? Glover's errors of fact are
> > jarring as is his infuriating repetition without any regard
> at
> > all for the historical narrative. The fact that you merely
> wish
> > to parrot this speaks volumes to me about about the depths--
> or,
> > rather, lack thereof--of your own intellectual faculties.
> >
> > Up to this point, your course has not been about
> Anthropology,
> > it has been about twentieth-century history--too bad its
> the
> > Cliff's Notes version. I was expecting to be reading
> several
> > ethnographies or some sort of compilation of essays written
> by
> > Anthropologists discussing warfare from a cross-cultural
> > perspective. Instead I get a history course, and a shoddy
> one
> > at that.
> >
> > You have not mentioned the word culture once. There has
> been no
> > serious attention paid to the psycho-cultural differences
> > between civilian and military life in a sustained,
> > methodological way beyond the simplistic "brain-washing"
> non-
> > explanation explanation. Isn't this something that should
> be a
> > primary focus in a course entitled The ANTHROPOLOGY of
> Conflict
> > and Violence? As opposed to, say, HIST-204 The Second World War?
> >
> > The experiences I have had with female instructors has not
> been
> > good. I have only had one who I would say is competent, and
> I
> > plan on thanking her for being competent, as she is a
> credit to
> > both her gender in particular and academia in general. Have
> > women entered into the professoriat because they are truly
> > competent enough to do so or is political-correctness and
> > affirmative action setting-up students to be taught by
> fools
> > with advanced degrees? If the reason is the latter,
> students
> > are being robbed of a quality education so school
> administrators
> > can squawk to politicians about how there are new
> opportunities
> > for (insert whatever group here).
>
> Katherine T. McCaffrey, Ph.D.
> General Editor, Anthropology Now
> Department of Anthropology
> Montclair State University
> Montclair, New Jersey 07043
The Dean of Students was most displeased and started off her comments to me with: "I've been in higher education longer than you've been alive" so this artificial appeal to authority is my signal to tune-out, which is something that I have perfected to an art-form. I am capable of maintaining a poker-face, with my mind only engaged to hear every third or fourth word so I know when to nod, while my brain pursues more worthwhile inquiries.
She read this e-mail back to me verbatim. If one is going to do this, it is best to read the letter beforehand and practice if necessary. Dean Howell stumbled over several words including intellectual and Anthropology. I would imagine McCaffrey and her must share the same gerbil or exercise wheel. If you're going to throw credentials in my face, please ensure that you know how to use the English language--so that your credibility isn't destroyed in my eyes.
She must have consulted a thesaurus to have been able to use all those synonyms for respect that she threw at me. I wasn't impressed. Learn how to pronounce words that any intelligent person should be able to pronounce, use and define--then get back to me. Perhaps what I witnessed was what psychologists term projection and transference. Dean Howell may have been shown heinous disrespect at some point in her life and this was now her chance to express her anger or perhaps McCaffrey cried to her about it.
If I had not perfected the poker-face I previously described, I think I would have been in a lot deeper shit after this meeting than before. I believe it is a well known fact that I do not tolerate fools, nor have any patience for them. If I was not able to disengage my mind, put basic reactions to verbal stimuli on auto-pilot and use the time to ponder more pressing concerns, I suspect that I wouldn't have been able to keep a straight-face while she was speaking or resist the urge to crack-off a salute and declare: "Heil Mein Fuehrer-ette!"
Fortunately, the Dean only lectured me for about three minutes. The man who I met with for the other forty minutes couldn't have been nicer. He even complemented me on such a well-written letter and was very pleased to have read it due to the absence of profanity and other vulgarities. Then he told me that he wanted to be a history professor and we talked shop for a half-hour--state of the discipline, I recommended a few books and fun stuff like that.
My other classes, with the exception of The Anthropology of Conflict and Violence (which I had with this terminal-degree awarded quack) are going swimmingly.