Archives for The Education of Oronte Churm

English 245

I loved your class. Your personal stories added so much “life” to the class as compared to many of the professors who come in and relay the same information semester after semester just to get paid. I’ve tried taking more of your classes, but can never find them and would just like to thank you for my now great interest in short stories, and Herman Melville, that I wouldn’t have had without you.

Iz, at 3:55 pm EDT on April 25, 2008

nice

Inside Higher Ed. has aquired a jem. I love your mcsweeney’s writings, and I’ll visit here often, if only to get more of the same. Great!

d, at 9:20 pm EST on December 24, 2006

EL PROFESOR UNIVERSITARIO EN ARGENTINA

AMOS JUAN COMENIUS PAULO FREIRE PROFESOR EDUARDO MARCELO COCCA jpg

Titulo El Profesor Universitario Autor Eduardo Marcelo Cocca Resumen Debemos tener en claro, si queremos una educación universitaria artesanal, amateur, o una educación en manos de verdaderos profesionales de hecho y de derecho, como corresponde y nos merecemos, y sobre todo en un país en serio, donde debe reinar por encima de todo el Estado de Derecho, al todos debemos propender para que su ejercicio, no sea una expresión de deseos, sino una realidad, a la que todos sin ninguna duda aspiramos. Lo habitual, tanto en universidades publicas como privadas y con la anuencia de sus autoridades, los Profesores Universitarios, son solamente de hecho, detentan una carrera de grado y tanto ellos como las autoridades, consideran suficiente merito para habilitarlos como profesores, en abierta contradicción con las leyes que regulan el ejercicio de la profesión, L.E.S. Art.. 36, Código Penal, etc. Palabras claves Usurpación de Titulo, Profesor Universitario, Estado de Derecho Fecha de envío 24/11/06 Fecha de recepción 24/11/06 Introducción Desde un punto de vista estrictamente jurídico estamos frente a una flagrante violación de la ley, delitos penales incluidos, creo que no es necesario recordar que todo ciudadano tiene obligación de conocer la ley, ni que decir si se trata de letrados. Desgraciada y alegremente tanto participes necesarios, como autoridades que nombran en estos puestos, están incursas en el delito, recordar el CP, cuando nos dice aquel que designe a alguien sin titulo suficiente, podemos cerrar los ojos o mirar para otro lado, tal como hemos hecho hasta ahora,pero después nonos quejemos de los resultados o busquemos chivos expiatorios en la escuela secundaria, cuando el verdadero problema, núcleo de esta cuestión es la universidad misma, que claro, manejada por amateurs y no verdaderos profesionales, titulados los resultados no pueden ser otros que los que se exhiben, lamentablemente. Desarrollo El Estado Nacional, a través del Ministerio de Educación otorga como corresponde, autorización a diferentes universidades publicas y privadas, el permiso para el post- grado de Profesor Universitario y posterior otorgamiento del titulo correspondiente, luego de cursada y aprobada la curricula especifica de la carrera. Ahora bien, la gran mayoría de los profesionales que ejercen como docentes universitarios, salvo raras excepciones, carecen del titulo de Profesor Universitario. El Profesor Universitario, cuando esta en clase frente al alumnado, no esta en calidad de abogado, juez, medico, ingeniero, etc., sino cumpliendo la función y desempeñando el rol de Profesor Universitario, y para lo cual y se cae de maduro que su carrera de grado no es suficiente para el ejercicio profesional como Profesor Universitario, tal como lo marca el sentido común y las regulaciones de las leyes. Prima facie, estos profesionales, sin titulo de Profesor Universitario, estarían alcanzados por el Art.. 246.- inc.1.-Usurpación de Títulos.-del Código Penal, que dice:el que ejerciera o asumiere funciones publicas sin titulo.- Art., 247.- Según ley 24527.- Usurpación de Títulos,- Código Penal.- que dice: el que ejerciere actos propios de una profesión......, sin poseer titulo...... y luego dice: el que se arrogare grados académicos, títulos profesionales u honores que no le correspondieren. La ley de Educación Superior N* 24521, Art.. 36, nos dice: los docentes de todas las categorías deberán poseer titulo universitario de igual o superior nivel a aquel en el cual ejercen la docencia.........,o sea que si ejercen como Profesor Universitario, tal como taxativamente lo marca la ley, deberán tener titulo de Profesor Universitario, además del titulo de la carrera de grado que lo habilita en la especialidad. Las universidades otorgan el titulo de Profesor Titular, Asociado, Adjunto o Jefe de Trabajos Prácticos. Le recuerdo aunque parezca una verdad de Perogrullo, para acceder al titulo de Profesor Universitario, hay que cursar y aprobar una determinada curricula. La ley de Educación Superior, que la que norma, contiene y da marco legal a las universidades, ni aun en el párrafo referido a la autonomía universitaria, no dice en ninguna parte que estas puedan nombrar a cualquier profesional con titulo insuficiente como Profesor Universitario. Desde el punto de vista del Derecho, supongamos que alguien que ejerce la profesión de Abogado, pero no sabe que es el Código Civil, ni quien fue Vélez Sarsfield, con toda seguridad ningún letrado aceptaría esta situación,sin embargo la mayoría de los Profesores Universitarios ( de hecho ), no saben quien fue Amos Comenius, ni que decir de su ” Didáctica Magna “, o incluso mas en nuestros días, el colega Abogado y Pedagogo Paulo Freire, quizás el mas importante en la historia de la educación latinoamericana, con su celebre texto ” La Pedagogía del Oprimido “. El Profesor Universitario, tiene la obligación de conocer, perfecta y profundamente, las corrientes didácticas imperantes, para que de acuerdo con su leal saber y entender, y luego de todos los análisis pertinentes, se enrolaren en la corriente conductista, humanista, constructivista o mixta, o incluso alguna elaboración personal basada en conocimientos que los especialistas elaboraran día a día, para aquellos a los que de verdad nos importa la educación universitaria abrevemos. Lo mismo sucede con cual es la metodología de enseñanza, que aplicaremos con el alumnado, será lineal, concéntrica o espiralada, el manejo de cualquiera de estas técnicas, debe ser algo tan habitual para el verdadero profesional, que cumple el rol de Profesor Universitario, como el hablar o escribir para cualquiera de nosotros. Lo expuesto hasta aca, no llega a ser ni la punta del iceberg Entonces señores de una vez `por todas a llegado el momento de ponernos los pantalones largos, y que asumamos como no puede ser de otra manera, que no se puede ejercer una profesión, ni ser un profesional de la misma sin titulo habilitarte. Como colofón y para dejar palmariamente demostrado todo lo expuesto hasta aquí, digamos que todos los meses cobramos una limosna, a la que las universidades llaman sueldos, y las remuneraciones son en concepto de Profesor auxiliar, jtp, adjunto, asociado o titular, insisto a cualquiera de estas categorías llegaron por una varita mágica que los designo inmerecidamente contra de todas las leyes del sector incluso reitero el Código Penal, que en este caso no cumple su función preventiva como debería y todos estamos esperando el irrestricto cumplimiento de la norma Conclusión Seria deseable, que las autoridades competentes y dando un plazo de 24 o 36 meses, para que los actuales Profesores Universitarios de hecho, se conviertan en Profesores Universitarios de Hecho y de derecho, para orgullo propio y de toda la comunidad educativa. Temas a debatir Profesores Universitarios de hecho o de hecho y de Derecho Profesores Universitarios Profesionales de la educación o amateurs de la educación universitaria Bibliografia Ley de Educacion Superior Nro. 24521Codigo Penal Argentino

—Posted by PROFESOR COCCA to PROFESOR COCCA at 11/25/2006 12:19:00 PM

EDUARDO COCCA, at 9:21 pm EST on December 27, 2006

Credits

All clip art, unless otherwise noted, comes courtesy of a terrific website for educators and students, called Clipart ETC. It’s an online service of Florida’s Educational Technology Clearinghouse. See http://etc.usf.edu/clipart/.

Oronte, at 10:25 am EDT on March 16, 2007

I wish Michael Bérubédid write novels. Though his lit crit and his blog are entertaining enough.

Amanda French, at 9:50 am EST on December 29, 2006

Tech Resistence

Oronte, Dr. Churm, how do we address you? Great you are here at IHE.

1.) There is a history professor, I hope still at UVa, Charlottesville, with just the same issues. Can’t remember his name. It will come to me. I heard him speak three or four years ago. He put together three or four years ago remarkable interaction pieces on the Civil War. All about one town and all the entanglements. No one quarreled with the depth of his research. The rub: Because the work was interactive, and not linear like a book or peer-review article, was it “history"? Did it count for tenure? 2.) I went to the Nieman Writers Conference this fall. All the best writer/journalists told everyone to watch more television and movies because that’s where the best editing can be — point of view, scenes, moving from one issue to another. At odds with the trouble you are getting. 3.) At a business job in the 1980s, we couldn’t get computers. Secretaries used them, not professionals. The budgets had money for secretaries, but not for computers. So, back to pencils and paper and no end of reworking time. Resistence continued. Only changed a few years later when we were able to dictate that no promotions, even among vice presidents, without demonstrating technology proficiency — just a bit of spreadsheets and word processing.

Your issues are the tough ones. Age old — prophet without honor but in his own land and all. Technology is very subversive. Which is why it’s such fun and must be aided and abetted all the time.

Wick Sloane, The Devil’s Workshop column here in IHE.

ws, at 9:21 am EST on January 2, 2007

Wick, great examples of tech resistance. I’ve also experienced the “technology for the support staff” phenomenon, which in some cases feels more like patriarchy—throw the underlings a bone in the name of democracy.

Twenty years ago, administrative assistants were given computers, but the quid pro quo was being put in charge of the monthly newsletter, which was A) More work for them, and B)Something they weren’t necessarily trained to write or design. Democracy, it turned out, meant “we don’t want to deal with it right now.”

Oronte, at 10:35 am EST on January 3, 2007

I’ve enjoyed your work at McSweeney’s (which led me here).

I’m new to blogging and I didn’t use a pen name, but I realize that there’s so much I don’t post onto my blog because it’s NOT anonymous.

I’m glad you’re writing about the adjunct life so candidly.

Happy New Year!

Grace, at 4:35 am EST on January 2, 2007

Greetings from a fellow part-time adjunct (albeit from a real estate teacher at a community college).

I have to agree, the bánh mì is possibly the best overlooked sandwich out there.

Keep up the great work!

Bart, at 6:15 pm EST on January 2, 2007

CompBlog—Scott McLemee announced my blog and said I might be in the room. I didn’t hear Berube acknowledge it. The man has more on his mind, I imagine. Like hockey.

Oronte, at 10:35 am EST on January 3, 2007

Blissed Out: You say, “We teach full-tilt boogie...without end.”

There’s always death to look forward to. Unless heaven is a for-profit too.

I’ve thought I’d like to do a recurring post: Who’s Got the Worst Deal in Academe? Drop me an e-mail and tell me more; maybe you qualify.

Oronte, at 10:50 am EST on January 4, 2007

Sorry about the soup....

I once had a friend who started “Atlas Shrugged” in high school, began hating it around page 50, yet forced herself to continue, on the principle that...Well, actually, I have no idea what the principle was.

Anyway, it took her years to finish (the speech by John Galt alone must have eaten up at least a couple of them) and by the time she was done, it was her senior year of college. And she still hated it. This struck me as being the readerly equivalent of Stockholm syndrome. I made a solemn vow never to let it happen to me.

We’ve been out of touch for a long time but I would like to think that my friend eventually developed a taste for novellas.

Also: There’s a difference between abandoning a book for good and deciding, “It’s not in me to finish this right now....Maybe later.” But often enough, you then have to start all over. I’ve had to do so about three times now with “Phenomenology of Spirit,” and still have no idea how it turns out. If you know, please don’t spoil it.

Scott McLemee, at 5:46 pm EST on January 4, 2007

Thrill me

As a ute, I fell under the sway of the spy/intrigue novels of Forsythe, Ludlum and DeMille, as well as the Spenser detective novels of Robert B. Parker.

I still read just about every Spenser book, though I do wait for the paperbacks.

JW, at 9:05 am EST on January 5, 2007

I admit to not being as erudite as at least half the people who read this. I almost feel like, being a chemistry student, there is a stigma attached with enjoying good literature (you’re reading Bronte? why? you could be studying dimethyldiazomalonate/the computational descriptions of electron motion/the correlation between ground water chemical contents and the surrounding population etc).That being said, in between books that have more merit, I manage to sneak in fantasy novels (I read Salvatore avidly while fully realizing that his pretentious style could never hold up were his topic not removed from reality to begin with), and the occasional Cosmopolitan magazine (I tell myself the tenets they uphold are ridiculous to begin with, so I can enjoy them as satire in their own right).

But really, I have no excuse.

Cami, at 5:20 pm EST on January 13, 2007

Hilarious!

Very funny stuff! “My Dog Skip” got me too. My wife cries at the end of “Sixteen Candles” for some unknown reason. I stopped years ago to try and figure her out.

Jack Dempsey, at 1:00 pm EST on January 8, 2007

Television melodrama

I can’t think of any movies that get me, but I’m a total sucker for serialized drama on television. Judging Amy, ER, Everwood, all have gotten me at one time or another, often more than one time.

It’s not schmaltz, it’s storytelling that relies on effective employment of architypal characters and situations.

Sure it is.

JW, at 5:20 pm EST on January 8, 2007

It’s impossible to explain why, even to myself, but I have watched the movie “St. Elmo’s Fire” more than once.

It is terrible. But I am bound to watch it again one of these days. Hell, I’m going to go plug it into TiVo right now, come to think of it.

Scott McLemee, at 5:35 pm EST on January 9, 2007

“Hook!”

“Hook!” It was “Hook” that I kept trying to think of, Christopher, while writing this post. Thank you. It makes me happier that you exist too.

Oronte, at 10:10 pm EST on January 11, 2007

Thank you. Wondered when you were going to hit your groove and deliver up some of that taut, delicate, witty McSweeney’s stuff.

P.S. Make up your own name next time.

Signed, Henry James.

Dr. Nemesis, Thank you, at 5:45 pm EST on January 10, 2007

Oh! Oh! Pick Me!

Dear Sir,

Me! Me! Pick Me! I know humor. I write. I read. I teach. I’ll pay my own way to a conference. I won’t look down my nose (no matter how substantial) at the attendees. I’m perfect for this gig.

Cordially,

Christopher Milton

Christopher Milton, at 11:30 am EST on January 11, 2007

Christopher: Where you been? There’s always next year.

BC: Now *you’re* funny!

Oronte, at 5:35 pm EST on January 11, 2007

Humour

Maybe you were looking in the wrong direction, I know some very funny writers on the faculty at Goucher’s MFA program in Creative Nonfiction.

Eve, Student MFA at Goucher College, at 10:31 am EST on January 17, 2007

Of swords.

While I do my best to keep my feet firmly planted in the “Thus of two sides raising arms against each other, it is the one that is sorrow-stricken that wins” school of thought, I have to admit that the image of “Pikes and Skulls lopping off each other’s noses and ears in the kegger rooms of their frat houses” has me strangely aroused. Nice post.

Roy Kesey, at 11:20 pm EST on January 15, 2007

slightly different take on Kubrick and the code

i’m not in agreement that Kubrick is condemning the code....my read is that he is highlighting the irony of what the code yields. the entire first half of the movie (boot camp) is about turning young men into weapons — and how effectively the marines do this....and at what individual cost (Pvt. Pyle). With Hartman’s comment, Kubrick seems to be ironically demonstrating how high the cost of having these weapons can be for society. i say irony because we commonly imagine marines defending and protecting — however assassination and mass murder are the exemplary models Hartman cites.

eric, at 1:30 pm EST on January 19, 2007