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This seems like as good a time as any to reflect on THAT TIME my economics professor tried to use a cautionary tale about a graduate student committing suicide for not proving the existence of a result to motivate us to learn the Bolzano–Weierstrass theorem. 1/ https://twitter.com/paulgp/status/1275154664816693248
Yes, you read that correctly!
An econ professor (name at end of threAd) at UW- Madison was so moved by theoretical existence in the required PhD (first year) Mathematical Economics Course (aka Math Camp) that he launched into an impassioned narrative. /2
An econ professor (name at end of threAd) at UW- Madison was so moved by theoretical existence in the required PhD (first year) Mathematical Economics Course (aka Math Camp) that he launched into an impassioned narrative. /2
The way he told it was about his friend in the math department back when he was an econ doctoral student. He shared a story to a class of ~30/40 of us about his friend taking his own life because he was so distraught about forgetting to prove existence of a result. /3
I remember being immediately struck by two things: 1) how contrived the motivational device felt & 2) how none of us called him on his completely inappropriate pedagogical approach in class. /4
But in many ways, the lack of response made sense. This was a senior faculty that could destroy our PhDs before they started, a prof who was viewed as brilliant, + a ‘teacher’ who was not particularly kind to questions that did not exhibit promise/insight themselves. /5
This is what first year econ students were welcomed to. A grotesque signal that what is/should not be appropriate on the outside, is just part of the training IF you are among those that can manage to make the cut. /6
In talking to students after that class, I was also amazed to see how many had already put on their armor and internalized the idea that the story may not have been THAT problematic. Though certainly some were DISGUSTED! /7
I was among the latter and completely taken aback. How could a professor think that using suicide as a motivational device was remotely appropriate in any situation!? And in a high stress environment, no less!? What a complete disregard for students’ mental health! /8
I filed a complaint with the relevant dean who took my complaint seriously and who assured me this was not acceptable. The dean also asked if I wanted to have my identity kept confidential (I DID!). /9
From what I understand, the dean spoke to the department chair who spoke to the prof who was given a slap on the wrist. The prof continued teaching the course and I continued trying to make the cut... /10
In conversations with students and faculty later on, I would learn that this was NOT the first time the prof had told some version of this story to motivate students, dissertator, etc. So this was a KNOWN issue in some circles, and basically NOTHING was done. Ugh! /11
And the crazy thing is that I bet many of you also have some completely batshit crazy story about something completely inappropriate your econ professor said to you or your class. (See . @bocar_a ). These experiences need to be shared so that people can understand just how /12
TOXIC the culture really is in econ! And, to be clear, these stories are not about me or any particular perpetrator, they are about publicly reflecting how pervasive the culture problems are in econ. /13
And for those of you still with me, the offending senior faculty member in this particular instance, who uses suicide to motivate students, is Raymond Deneckere in the econ department at UW-Madison. /fin
Forgot to include the hash: #EconTwitter .
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