And then there was Bert Kaplan
Nice guy, by all accounts, and a well-respected scholar. Deadly lecturer, though. I lasted just one hour before I dropped his class, and count myself lucky to have survived those interminable five dozen minutes, although a substrate of "youthful experimentation" may have strengthened my fibre. Others were not so fortunate. Dozens of comatose undergraduates were laid out like cordwood on the Stevenson quad. Some recovered; others were impaired to some degree for years; a few remained ever after in a "persistent vegetative state." Three or four expired even before the paramedics arrived. I've heard rumors that some of the survivors subsequently became Republicans, but I'd like not to credit this.
So yeah, bad lecturers can make for bad pedagogy. We do not, however, abolish surgery following the occasional malpractice suit.
cordially,
