Professor draws ire for saying students will have to work hard

Apparently challenging students to work hard and apply themselves is now considered “extremely damaging” to students. This is on the prestigious campus of the UK’s Cambridge University.

You would think that students that went through the extensive and demanding application process to get into Cambridge would be excited for the challenge.

Sadly, this is not the case in the new world of the Millennial snow flake.

UK’s Cambridge University physical sciences professor came under fire this week from mental health campaigners and students after he suggested undergraduates will have to work hard and abstain from drinking to pass the course.

Eugene Terentjev draw the fury of students and mental health activists after sending out an email last week to first-year natural sciences undergraduates at Cambridge, telling them the course will be difficult and thus they should refrain from drinking and other social activities if they wish to succeed, according to an email leaked to student-run publication Varsity.

“Physical sciences is a VERY hard subject, which will require ALL of your attention and your FULL brain capacity (and for a large fraction of you, even that will not be quite enough),” Terentjev wrote to the students.

The response to this message is a head scratcher...

The professor’s comments caused an uproar among activists and students, who called his email “extremely damaging” and neither “appropriate nor acceptable”, with one other university vice-chancellor accusing Terentjev of “frightening impressionable undergraduates”, the London Times reported.

A mental health campaign at the university, Student Minds Cambridge, said the message sent by the professor “could be extremely damaging to the mental well-being of the students concerned, and potentially others as well,” the Times reported.

Source

They're in for a tough lesson in life. Life only gets harder the older you get and more work is required.

You can't be succesful without hard work. And as the Rock says. "Hard work always pays off, always!"

How dare he not just assign them grades based on their obvious societal lack of privilege.

originally posted by: amazing
They're in for a tough lesson in life. Life only gets harder the older you get and more work is required.

You can't be succesful without hard work. And as the Rock says. "Hard work always pays off, always!"

That used to be common knowledge.

The thing that amazes me is this is a top university where people should expect to be challenged to work harder than their peers. If you want to goof off and drink you go to Ohio State not Harvard.

It’s hard to take the prestige of these once elite schools seriously anymore.

a reply to: Metallicus

...he suggested undergraduates will have to work hard and abstain from drinking to pass the course.

Oh, is this like an alcohol ban?

Legislating morality never works.

originally posted by: intrptr
a reply to: Metallicus

...he suggested undergraduates will have to work hard and abstain from drinking to pass the course.

Oh, is this like an alcohol ban?

Legislating morality never works.

If he's implying they might need to spend more time studying than partying, that's not legislating morality, that's just showing an understanding of the life of the average college undergrad.

a reply to: Metallicus

From the source maybe this is what they found objectionable...

, which will require ALL of your attention and your FULL brain capacity (and for a large fraction of you, even that will not be quite enough),” Terentjev wrote to the students

a reply to: Metallicus

Apparently challenging students to work hard and apply themselves is now considered “extremely damaging” to students.

and of course the opposite is actually true, so one has to wonder what the actual modus-operandi is here? If a student takes heed of this false-logic and decides that hard work is not warranted and that success will come through other means, then good luck to them - the reality is, is that it's a tough world out there, so they'll learn about that the hard way.

Physical sciences is a VERY hard subject, which will require ALL of your attention and your FULL brain capacity (and for a large fraction of you, even that will not be quite enough)

It's one thing to say you need to work hard and another to say you are most likely doomed anyways even if you give your all, there is no reason to put more stress on people that are basically deers in headlights unless you are a sadist.

If most will fail anyways save that comment and just encourage them to do their best, or do you like to tell cows heading to the slaughterhouse they will die.

a reply to: Metallicus


Stock tip!


Buy stock in Crayola and a company that makes Coloring books!

originally posted by: Indigent

Physical sciences is a VERY hard subject, which will require ALL of your attention and your FULL brain capacity (and for a large fraction of you, even that will not be quite enough)

It's one thing to say you need to work hard and another to say you are most likely doomed anyways even if you give your all, there is no reason to put more stress on people that are basically deers in headlights unless you are a sadist.

If most will fail anyways save that comment and just encourage them to do their best, or do you like to tell cows heading to the slaughterhouse they will die.

Failure is most definitely to be the outcome if your attitude is prevalent in our youth?

Throughout history, it was those who refused to give up and kept fighting who made our country what it was! Notice I said was? I said was because we have become a country of a bunch of sissies who when their life sucks, instead of reflecting in a mirror of how much of their piss poor decisions have created where their life is at the moment, it has become acceptable for a certain segment of society to blame everyone else?

a reply to: ketsuko

He also said this

He added: “Remember that you are NOT at any other uni, where students do drink a lot and do have what they regard as a ‘good time’ — and you are NOT on a course, as some Cambridge courses sadly are, where such a behaviour pattern is possible or acceptable.”

meaning the physical sciences are more labour intensive than other Cambridge courses. Pretty obvious in my eyes that some degrees are harder than the arts.

Its stupid that the students union somehow takes that and talks about work life balance. If the students struggle they can adjust their course, the professor is warning them simply that they will not succeed if they dont put in the work, in fact assisting them with the reality of the workload and helping them to psychologically prepare for the year ahead.

a reply to: seeker1963

The guy said even if you dedicate 100% to this it's most likely you will still be too dumb for it and fail, what does that have to do with sissies and crap?

It has to do with the professor putting the fear of gawd into his class on day 1. He's a hard @ss, so what? I had one of those in a 100 level undergrad course -- Oceanography.

His speech was most appropo. The guy gave tests that made grad students sweat. One multiple choice question would have a full paragraph to it, and every answer option would have at least a full paragraph in response, and your job was to go through a pick out the one tiny detail that would disqualify one paragraph plus possible answer from another.

And then there were essay question where he expected no less than a full page response.

On the upside, the tests were only 10 questions.

originally posted by: Metallicus
Apparently challenging students to work hard and apply themselves is now considered “extremely damaging” to students. This is on the prestigious campus of the UK’s Cambridge University.

You would think that students that went through the extensive and demanding application process to get into Cambridge would be excited for the challenge.

Sadly, this is not the case in the new world of the Millennial snow flake.

UK’s Cambridge University physical sciences professor came under fire this week from mental health campaigners and students after he suggested undergraduates will have to work hard and abstain from drinking to pass the course.

Eugene Terentjev draw the fury of students and mental health activists after sending out an email last week to first-year natural sciences undergraduates at Cambridge, telling them the course will be difficult and thus they should refrain from drinking and other social activities if they wish to succeed, according to an email leaked to student-run publication Varsity.

“Physical sciences is a VERY hard subject, which will require ALL of your attention and your FULL brain capacity (and for a large fraction of you, even that will not be quite enough),” Terentjev wrote to the students.

The response to this message is a head scratcher...

The professor’s comments caused an uproar among activists and students, who called his email “extremely damaging” and neither “appropriate nor acceptable”, with one other university vice-chancellor accusing Terentjev of “frightening impressionable undergraduates”, the London Times reported.

A mental health campaign at the university, Student Minds Cambridge, said the message sent by the professor “could be extremely damaging to the mental well-being of the students concerned, and potentially others as well,” the Times reported.

Source

Bahaha when I went to school the first thing we were told was to expect to work non-stop and that some of us probably wouldn't make it through the program. Over 4 years out of 32 people in the beginning about 28 finished. I did 12 hour days 5 days a week at school, many days outside in rain or snow. I worked nights until 10 afterwards and had to prepare presentations and projects each week while working with a local park a large comprehensive project worth a fairly large part of the course I was taking. It was great. Stressful as hell but taught me a lot about what to expect in the world after I finished.

a reply to: Metallicus

I wonder if Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell graduated from there? He chided President Trump for asking him to work too hard. "Your expectations are too high, Mr. President!"

originally posted by: Sublimecraft
a reply to: Metallicus

Apparently challenging students to work hard and apply themselves is now considered “extremely damaging” to students.

and of course the opposite is actually true, so one has to wonder what the actual modus-operandi is here? If a student takes heed of this false-logic and decides that hard work is not warranted and that success will come through other means, then good luck to them - the reality is, is that it's a tough world out there, so they'll learn about that the hard way.

In a sane world, I would agree with ya!

originally posted by: Indigent
a reply to: seeker1963

The guy said even if you dedicate 100% to this it's most likely you will still be too dumb for it and fail, what does that have to do with sissies and crap?

Guess the military would DEFINATELY be a NO GO for you?

Sorry, but your mamby pamby way of bringing up our youth is the reason they are acting the way they are today! No better motivator than to prove to an "arsehole" they are wrong?

You make excuses, I find solutions for those who's minds have become corrupted by laziness and Cultural Marxism! Face it, the pendulum is swinging back! Don't blame ya for being scared!