I don't think this happened in any of the courses I've taken. It certainly wasn't routine at either of the universities I've attended.
We just did that today for a seminar taught by a professor in our lab, where almost all the students are grad students in the lab (or postdocs in the lab who are auditing). It was weird and awkward, although, sure, good class, thanks dude.
I never heard of doing that for a professor. Excepting Dead Poets Society-type scenarios.
People definitely did it at my final undergraduate institution, especially for big lecture classes.
I don't remember ever seeing this happen. But it's the sort of thing that might have happened in every college class I ever took, and I blocked it out as too cheesy to deal with.
I feel like I have experienced this at some point, but I don't remember where. It just seems incredibly weird.
Oh God, you're reminding me that I'm about to face this. Definitely the norm where I teach, with the students' true views expressed in the length of the applause. Ugh, I'm starting to cringe just thinking about it.
I've noticed the professors often kind of bolt for the door.
It varied by professor. Certainly only in large lecture classes, and only if the professor gave some kind of wrap-up inspiring summary, otherwise everyone forgot it was the last class.
You know, maybe the alternate way to look at is less "hail, professor!" than "hooray, we've all gone on this journey together and now we're done!" That at least seems like a nice enough sentiment.
Where I went to school, we stood up on our desks one after another and said in an earnest, plaintive sqeak "oh captain, my captain!"
Actually I don't remember at all.
I once went to a new music concert where, among many other pieces, they put a player piano onstage to play something by Ligeti or Nancarrow and the whole time all I could think was "do we clap for this piano when it has played the piece?"
If it's Nancarrow I'd give that poor machine a standing O, assuming it hasn't caught fire by the end.
It'd be neat to build a player piano with a built-in microphone, such that if there was noise while it was playing it would start to have timing problems and occasionally miss notes and so on but if there was solid applause at the end of a piece it would get more daring with tempos and tighter on the next piece it played.
I am now going down a youtube hole of things like Marc-Andre Hamelin's player piano piece based on Pop Goes the Weasel.
This is great data so far. I'm just going to assume Tweety is making a graph.
6
I don't remember ever seeing this happen. ...
Ditto.
I secretly suspect Conlon Nancarrow pseudonymously wrote the Nyan Cat song.
Ok sorry, too early in thread.
I bet Koji Kondo is a big Conlon Nancarrow fan.
Oh god no. Never been applauded, never been a student in a class where there was applause. Thank effing god.
I think the only time we ever applauded a prof was when everybody's favorite architectural history prof returned to the room after somebody came in to administer the evaluation forms. At least that's my recollection.
Also the last day of class is weirdly anticlimactic, because you're reviewing for the final and they're all panicking or absentee.
heebie gets it right with "Oh god no". What the hell? If I thought students were going to do that I'd teach the last class (Tuesday!!) while slowly backing toward the door to flee before it happens.
Always, in both college and law school. I have a vague recollection that the very old English prof I had freshman year got applause after every class. Now that I'm on the other side of the lectern, I get applause maybe 25% of the time. I don't mind it.
Absolutely routine at Berkeley in the late 90s. I only recall one or two classes where it was noticeably short or slow to start. And I have to say, I only had three of four classes where I wasn't pretty enthusiastic about clapping and did it only out of rudimentary politeness. I really had good luck picking them. In very small classes (like 3 or 4) we did more shaking hands and thanking.
We generally clapped for TAs/GSIs also, if I recall, though sometimes we screwed up by not realizing it was the last section until it was too late.
I saw it if the professor (or even TA) gave some kind of "words to end class with"* speech. But I also saw some awkward "should we clap?" end of class scenarios. You know, where some people seem to have their hands ready but they don't want to be the ones to start the applause.
*Yeah, that sounds like nothing, but I'm finding it hard to characterize it. It's not really "words to live by" but it's closer to a speech than just a basic, "here's some stuff to take away from the class."
There were several classes where we particularly mortified the professor by giving them a gift from the class. I'm not sure *why* we always thought a Cal fleece would be appreciated---in retrospect most professors, even alumni, don't wear them.
As an undergrad I was in mostly seminars and smaller courses, which don't seem to be under the microscope here.
As a TA at a public university, I never was in a classroom where applause started, I don't think I heard of the phenomenon - and heebie's 23 reflects the first reason I thought of for why I find it hard to imagine.
Absolutely routine at Berkeley in the late 90s
I don't know about routine, but it wasn't unusual when I was there. Maybe 1999 was a big applause-fest.
(In the current UC system, you're required to applaud on furlough days.)
31: Sadly, I think there is some truth to that.
The only time I ever clapped I class was when the professor used a Sharpie on the dry erase board.
Clapping at the end of the last class only in large-ish lecture courses. In undergrad courses. Usually when the prof. is star-like (not necessarily professionally, but teaching-wise). Sometimes the clapping could be self-applause, for all of us, who have worked through this material together and have enjoyed it.
I'm mostly completely pwned, I see. I should have known, or maybe read the thread, which at 34 comments is practically non-existent these days.
Well, I screwed up that one. Probably good we don't do the year thing every thread.
I believe I have witnessed this, and think it even happened once to me.
Happened in several giant lecture classes I was in. If you have enough people someone will think it's appropriate and once one person is clapping...
I was in a 400+ person class where the prof gave a stirring conclusion, and everyone was clapping as she was walking out of the lecture hall, then she tripped on one of the stairs and fell flat on her face. That was awkward.
It was absolutely standard at my undergrad institution, and fortunately not at all anywhere I've taught. (Well, actually, I bet it happened for select giant lectures at UC-by-the-lagoon. But nowhere near me personally.) I thought it was nice and appropriate when I was the one clapping, since in fact the prof had spent a whole term performing for us, but now that I'm on the other side of the lectern I am much happier to go without.
|| I found ten dollars today! With the cost of living here, that's almost worth five dollars. |>
There were several classes where we particularly mortified the professor by giving them a gift from the class.
I had a class give me a Precious Moments figurine in anticipation of the birth of Rory. I'm still really touched by the gesture.
I've been applauded at the end of language courses, but it always had at least a bit of the self-applause, for all of us, who have worked through this material together and have enjoyed it that parsimon mentions in 35. But in communication-based language courses there's more of a sense of having been in something together.
DFH College in the early 80s: applause at most classes. Also, Mr/Ms and not Prof/Doctor.
At grad school: no applause.
I don't remember applauding in undergrad. But there was always some kind of other end of the year thing going on -- we were having class outside, we brought a bunch of beer to class, we were meeting in the tutor's house --that it's possible there was some applause wrapped up in all the other celebratory stuff.
Never in grad school to my knowledge, but when I taught in the forced march that was the summer intensive Greek program, there was applause of the "holy crap, we did it" variety sort of like what Blume mentions.
I've never been in a class that applauded, as a student nor as a professor. I have a colleague at my last college who gets applause all the time, on the first day of the semester and last, at least. I keep trying to figure out what she does that occasions applause.
I don't think I would feel comfortable if it happened; it would be saying that I "performed" somehow, and that my "audience" was entertained by that performance. Teaching the way I do is difficult in a different way, but it is always responsive to an ongoing discussion. But maybe I'm just jealous? I don't think so.
At the religious school and at my last college, the end of class, especially on a really good day, would cause everyone to leave by way of my desk, and they'd thank me for a great class and wish me a good weekend or Tuesday or whatever. Ass-kissy, but very pleasant.
I keep trying to figure out what she does that occasions applause.
I'm sure it involves inspiring the students to use their full potential and develop new talents in unexpected areas. Or she is an easy grader.
I bet that if you bow with a big flourish after concluding a speech that rises to a spittle-flecked crescendo and then suddenly stops, punctuated with dramatic gestures you'll get a round of applause. Or at least a reaction.
Also, removing your underwear without taking off, or even lowering, your pants.
Definitely the norm where I teach, with the students' true views expressed in the length of the applause.
The first student to stop applauding gets a gamma, along the lines of what happened when Stalin addressed the Party Congress.
parsi's view in 35 resonates - freshman year we clapped for our chemistry prof, whose huge lecture class was a rite of passage for science/premed/engineering majors. He was also dean of freshmen and more or less a legend on campus. Don't know how he was as a chemist but that was almost beside the point.
People clapped at my law school, but not (as I recall) my undergrad. It seemed to make most professors somewhat uncomfortable, and I had one whose final lecture led him closer and closer to the door, until he walked out with his closing words, leaving his teaching materials at the podium. We waited around a minute or two, but he didn't come back.
They definitely clap for Kingsfield at the end of The Paper Chase.
The one and only time I have ever been applauded was at the end of teaching a one-off class session for the intro class I was TAing (~45 students). It was on the Encheiridion. Never saw it from the student side at my undergrad SLAC.
I got applauded once after giving a guest-lecture (on Dracula the Jew/Dracula the Homo) for another professor's class. In defense of the students, I think they were as surprised by their outburst as I was.
Never saw that happen anywhere else. Clearly it's not the custom where I teach.
I had one whose final lecture led him closer and closer to the door, until he walked out with his closing words, leaving his teaching materials at the podium.
I remember reading about the psychology class who worked something similar on their lecturer after reading about unconscious reinforcement. They got all the girls in the front few rows to smile at him when he stood to the left of the lectern, and stop smiling when he stood to the right. By the end of the lecture he was as far left as he could get without walking through the wall AND HE HAD NO IDEA WHY.
We applauded guest lectures by TAs no matter how they did. Except for the time an alarm went off in the building and the class period ended before we could get back in. But that TA, if I recognized the name right, recently turned out to be an enormous trolling asshole on a blog I read, so fuck the lost applause.
I was in one undergrad class that gave the prof a standing ovation after the final lecture. He was a legend in his field, and it was literally his last lecture before retirement.
In Germany, students don't applaud, exactly, but they signal their appreciation with rhythmic rapping of the knuckles on the desktop. IMX this happened after every lecture, without exception that I can remember. Wikipedia gives a bizarre account of the origins of this practice.
Law school yes, but not elsewhere. During 1L, my section gave several professors standing ovations, which was awkward when I and several other students didn't like the professor and didn't stand. Some professors really play up the last day of class in 1L and give little speeches with life advice and inspiration.
This year I had a couple of seminars, and people applauded but it seemed weird.
Per a nineteen-year-old future Simpson's writer, apparently at Harvard it used to happen after every non-boring lecture? Presumably that was only in the big undergrad classes? Also, there was hissing?!?
(Article features bonus hilarious OCR errors.)
Article features bonus hilarious OCR errors
Actually, the online archives were created before the widespread commercial availability of OCR. They were digitized by the expedient of training Cambodian tribespeople to type English words they couldn't understand. I'm not making this up. I think there was double or triple data entry to catch the inevitable errors.
Dracula the Jew
NO IDEA WHAT YOU'RE TALKING ABOUT HERE.
Absolutely routine at Berkeley in the late 90s.
We generally clapped for TAs/GSIs also
Uh oh.
I think I vaguely remember being embarassed by the clapping, maybe in law school? I can't really remember.
When I started in grad school, the building still had bells. Like high school style, BRRRIIIIIINNNG! on ten minutes to the hour, to dismiss class, and then on the hour, to start class. It was super weird but you stop noticing it pretty quickly. They were discontinued at some point while I was a graduate student.
Anyway, there was one professor I had my first year who would routinely lecture through the dismissal bell, which is nbd of course. But then he would lecture through the bell starting the next class, too, and we'd start to panic, because it wasn't clear he'd ever realize that class was over, and there wouldn't be another cue for 50 minutes, and we'd all just sit there politely.
Before smart phones, that must have been especially trying.
We had a ten-minute bell and a late bell too (in undergrad). The bell was in fact a big old bell in a bell tower, even. I just remember being panicked a lot. Was that the 10-minute bell or the late bell?! Invariably I was late and started running.
||
People of Queens, you have democratically elected some extraordinarily erratic people to the Supreme Court bench in your county. Entertaining, but erratic.
|>
democratically elected
Does being nominated by some insanely corrupt local party organization and then forced on single-party voters who have no idea who the person is count as a democratic election? Maybe!
I have a current case with locally famous CrazyJudge, who likes to just egregiously haze lawyers for no reason -- line by line scoffing at points in a brief, an amazing system where he makes people stand in front of him and handwrite long orders that he dictates, line by line, personally insulting the lawyers all the while (this can take over an hour). My personal favorite is a move where he'll agree with one side in detail, give all verbal and demeanor cues of ruling in one side's favor and then saying . . . but I'm still ruling against you! Hahhahaha (he literally laughs). He's kind of amazing in his way.
Technically, "lawyer" is a reason. It's just not a very specific one.
73: While that's not a portrait in detail of my guy, he's equivalently out there. I actually kind of enjoy appearing before him, because if he's favoring me and beating up the other guy, that's always fun, and when he's beating me up, I kind of enjoy calibrating the "With the utmost of respect, Your Honor" so that it communicates the underlying "(A) Screw you, and (B) if you do anything too strange, the Appellate Division is going to fix it for me" with subtle but respectful clarity, particularly because there's always a full courtroom to play to.
And in defense of the Queens Democratic Party, I've never heard that it was nearly as corrupt as the Brooklyn Democratic Party.
I'm working on a case right now involving NY law and your whole backwards convention of court naming is making my head hurt. Presumably, there's some sensible, historical reason that the lowest court in the state system is designated "supreme," and I suppose it would be doubly confusing to rename everything now. But man.
77: Massachusetts naming conventions can trip up the unwary as well. We have a Supreme Judicial Court, which is so named to distinguish it from the Massachusetts General Court, which is the official name for the legislature.
New York has also maintained its status as one of the great repositories of law in the Western World by having its state appellate court judges largely write one paragraph, near-incomprehensible "opinions."
If they just came out and told you what the law was, where would be the fun in that?
The trial courts are "Supreme" because they're courts of general jurisdiction, as opposed to some lesser court of limited jurisdiction.
Maryland has a Court of Special Appeals for appeals that are not special.
I mean, one might think the Illinois courts are so well designed because so many of our elected leaders find themselves personally before the court, but they're always prosecuted in federal rather than state court. Also, our judges certainly would never be guilty of one paragraph opinions. Even the unpublished appellate decisions tend to by 20-pagers.
During fits of democratic idealism, I like to think that NY trial courts are "Supreme" because they're closest to the people.
Would it help if you pictured them all singing behind Diana Ross.
"In the criminal justice system of New York, the people are represented by two separate yet equally important groups: the police who search minority men for guns without reference to the 4th amendment and the district attorneys who remember that the "Supreme" court is what other states call the district court. These are their stories."
85: Everyone thinks I'm a district attorney. I'm not a district attorney. They work for the city, I work for the state.
I wish I know what the deal was with the terse, cryptic appellate opinions. I have a friend who's the court attorney for an Appellate Division judge (like a clerk, but in the NY State courts it's a career job for a grownup rather than something a kid does right out of law school), and I have asked if there's some sort of unwritten policy about it dating from the great ink shortage of 1887. He says no, and that his judge writes real opinions that do things like tell you what the relevant facts of the case were.
72
You ever have any thoughts of being a judge?
Jerry Stop is a hotshot young district attorney, or state equivalent of a district attorney, whose world is turned upside down when he falls for soulful and nubile public defender Miranda Frisk.
Aaaarrrg my class clapped. Most of them looked really sheepish while doing it and I probably looked embarrassed and it was generally awkward.
101: I'm really slow. I just got this.
102: You should have done the clasping hands together, moving hands from above one shoulder to the other, gesture!
I got applauded yesterday too. I looked super awkward and then curtseyed.
Why all the phony modesty, Unfogged teachers?
106 is perfect, but another option would be to run up and down the aisles giving out high fives.
I have a buddy who does a funny, combination "stop"/"keep it coming" gesture. He extends his open left hand, palm facing towards the interlocutor, in a "stop" gesture, and simultaneously he uses his right hand, palm facing in towards him, to do that "come on" finger-wag thing. Then he throws in a flattered grin, a head tilt, and a not very sincere "Stop it, guys. Stop."
Does anyone subscribe to the NYRB? If so, will you please send me a copy of the review referenced here?
OT: Sometimes I feel a vague urging to do more work with my hands, like buying a fixer-upper and restoring it. I should probably continue to suppress those urges, as I do with the urges for cigarettes.
114: That one looks very doable, at least from the pictures there. Our across-the-street neighbors have that house look and layout and it's cozy but gives you lots of options. I'm pretty sure our house has the exact same laminate counters and we'll be living with them a few more years unless we come into some money. But you can build a workbench and surely you could do basic restoration if you so chose. The plaster seems to be in good shape and converting fireplaces to gas isn't too expensive and makes winters lovely. (The fireplaces aren't all to my taste, but they're certainly not awful.)
From the pictures, I think they want $20,000 too much. It's a small house.
And I'm assuming the attic room isn't counted as one of the three bedrooms, otherwise it is really small.
116: Right, but you can negotiate the price. Start with the Obama: offer them $20,000 more.
I thought it was overpriced, but it depends on the neighborhood.
Yeah, in my neighborhood there's one with the same layout and in similar or maybe slightly better condition for 86K, though I'm not sure whether it's technically outside the historic district since it's on the dividing street. If not, it's easier to make changes since you don't have to meet the historical renovation guidelines.
In that area, a freshly renovated house of that size with central air would go for maybe $200k, if the garage is of useful size (note that they don't have a picture of the garage). I think you could make it that house for under $70k, but only if you did much of the work yourself and didn't consider your own time worth much.
Yeah I was going to say there was no way you could get that thing really renovated for under $100k unless you had electrician and real plumbing and foundation skills, but maybe not. Doesn't look like a value at all if you could get a similar actually renovated house for $200k (OMG!), even putting aside the destroy-your-marriage factor.
Right. I'm not allowed to buy houses without running it by my wife first. And saying, "I'm going to take you somewhere for a surprise" before driving her to a closing isn't sufficient. I've learned that now.
Also, I love that the real estate agent for that place kinda just gave up. Eh, let's take the exterior picture during a snowstorm. Fuck it. Here's your gloomy, shitty home, if you want to buy it. Or not.
123: Even if you get one of those ENORMOUS bows like they have in teevee commercials for Mercedes?
Last night I watched a PBS show that featured this lighthouse. It was sold off by the GSA and bought by some seemingly regular folks who are fixing it up. What I'm saying is, should you be holding out for a lighthouse, Mobes?
104 Hey essear, who's Lubo/s Mo/tl?
Why do you ask? His Wikipedia page is a pretty fair summary, I think.
Because following a series of Haskell- and type-theroy-related links led me to Sco/tt Aa/ronson's blog, where he linked in amused fashion to Lubo/s's blog posts on his new book.
The house has been owned by the same people since 2000. Makes me wonder how the walls got ripped down at this particular juncture or if they have been down for years.
Lubo/s Mo/tl is someone whose career was completely destroyed by blogging, in that he discovered he liked having a blog where he called almost everyone else in the world stupid was a better use of his time than actually doing any physics.
So none of you subscribe to the NYRB? No wonder print is dead.
Lubo/s is an odd character. He's generally right about physics at the big-picture level, although (increasingly so as time elapses since he was last active in research) sometimes muddled on details (e.g., being overly credulous when experiments claim to have discovered new things). But then he's sexist and racist and a global warming denier, which makes his blog unreadable.
So none of you subscribe to the NYRB? No wonder print is dead.
I can get the article for you when I get home, VW.
If you send it, then he won't have a reason to subscribe and print will die a little more.