There should be a process for grade appeals in your syllabus. Or you could try talking to the department. You'll probably have to just eat the grade, however. Sanity is in short supply on a college campus.

if he wrote you are sexist that is disgusting and pedagogically baffling, tell him you are curious and would like to talk about his comment and if he doesn't give you a satisfactory answer take it to the administration.

His job is to teach you, if he feels hes too good for that inform every person who is his superior and let him have fun with that.

en if your writing was insensitive he should have talked to you about it, not labeled you something that you clearly didnt mean. Again see him try to straighten it out, if it doesn't work out, scorched earth baby (of course I say this from a distance it might be harder in person).

Radical concept: visit him in person, tell him that you're not there to talk about the grade, but are rather, genuinely intellectually interested. Why is basing pay on output a sexist approach to compensation?

Is it because he believes you are only talking about physical labor, where men will tend to have a significant overall biological advantage? (in which case, he mis-understood your concept).

Is it because he believes that only physical output is measurable? Perhaps he needs examples, such as stock portfolio management, standardized tests for student achievement, arrest/conviction rate for police/prosecutors

even if he thought the statement was sexist, you don't approach a students paper by writing "You are Sexist." Your job is to teach, not label your students. But I concur, meet with him and be sure to be calm and keep an even keel, also keep all emails you share with him, (you might consider asking him by email first to have proof incase he still is being a douche, he will remember writing that)

Perhaps he misunderstood your argument, in which case, if you come across completely as interested in the intellectual discussion, he may say "oooooh! I need to change your grade!" But going to the wall is scarcely a good overall strategy, especially when there are still finals to be graded in a subjective manner. And who knows...there might just be an angle of this argument that he sees and you (and I) don't

Post your paper and we'll see if it's sexist.

(emailing is not bad...but it isn't very "friendly"...so be friendly in person but take a tape recorder!)

Putin +2!

think a tape recorder is illegal in some states and looks duplicitous, E-mail is seen as completely admissable. Id also be willing to wager this tool will go off even if he is politely questioned. Don;t ask about the grade ask about the label "I was saddened to see you labeled me a sexist when I don;t know what i said to deserve it," or something like that.

@Indybroughton A lot of the examples you gave were actually in my paper in one form or another. Personally, how he commented on my paper prior to the sexist comment, I think he views the biological differences is a sexist view in itself. I talk to him on Tuesday regarding the paper and if that's the case I'll suggest he go write a letter to the Olympics and tell them that they are a sexist organization that should abolish their sex based segregation. (He is not only an avid letter writer he advocates that every class.)

@Putin33 - I gave him back the paper to read it and told him why he should try reading it with a fresh perspective.

@SantaClausowitz I agree, it's more the fact that he without regard labeled me and graded me based on opposing views! If my stance was sexist he is not supposed to grade based on whether I agree with him but the logical flow of my paper. This is a cultural anthropology class and the first thing emphasized was that we should observe a different perception and do our best to understand it. His reaction is the opposite of what he said is the core of his profession.

disinterest in the grade helps your cause (even though you would probably care little what he thought of you if it didn't have a grade attached). Try talking to him, skip the tape player, but do keep a written record of your interactions and escalate if he fails to responde adequately. You could also see if there are any student advocacy groups that would help you out.

well he can grade you if it misses the core tennants of the class (im sure sexism is seen out of that realm), this isnt an english class where hes grading on writing but also on what you learned in class. But he should try to work with you to help you understand where you went wrong, not label you

College is not about learning things or honing your rhetorical skills. It is about satisfying your professors to get a good grade. This one would obviously not tolerate an opinion that strayed from his. You have to wait until you're out of college for it to be safe to have any opinions of your own - your task at this point is simply to regurgitate what your professors say verbatim. Independent thought can get you in big trouble.

Tolstoy +1

@Tolstoy that is what college is like if your goal is a high GPA with a degree you use to get you by. My goal on the other hand is to gain much insight, meet future colleagues, and observe other perceptions. I have most of my discourse outside of school among friends and I wouldn't feel like I was progressing if I retained any ingrained misconceptions from my professors.

@Sayjo - If you want to go onto grad school, you better be concerned about the GPA.

+2 Tolstoy
+1 Draug

Regardless if we have our own opinions, our own set core of values, they cannot go against the professor's thoughts or ideologies. If they do they make you pay for it (grade wise). It's not bad to have your own thoughts. I argue with teachers outside the classroom, but not on assignments. It's never bad to just write a random paper and hand it to the teacher so he or she can see your laid out arguments and either rebut them or accept them.

@Sayjo: yikes! a D instead of an A. You have really disappointed the old boy. There is a thing called the 'halo effect' meaning that when it goes well with you, the lecturers think you are an Angel (also known as a Winner), and give you A's to match. Now you have lost that halo... Even if you win the fight with the lecturer, you still run the risk of losing your halo, and by extension your A's too.
Whatever you do, make sure you keep looking like a Winner, not like a whining bitching Loser, and hence most definitely not A grade material

"I gave him back the paper to read it and told him why he should try reading it with a fresh perspective. "

Surely you have a copy saved somewhere. If not, this "story" doesn't pass the smell test.

I love the anti-intellectualism though. Conservative thought is so oppressed.

"Conservative thought is so oppressed."

Tell me - how many Republican faculty members are there in your PoliSci department at your somewhat prominent state university?

As a fascist, you probably can easily predict where I would stand in this issue, during the Affirnative action debate in English last year:
My English teacher talked about how before she was a teacher, she was working for some company and was the leading person in sale, however in the end it was the second place, not her, who was nominated and ended up becoming the vice-president for the branch.

My response was:
Ms S, there can be many reason why the company was justified in passing the job over to a male, for one, given how well you were exceeding at your job, it was possible they wanted you to stay at that job, worried about loosing sales if they lost their best women.
Second, given that the vice-president for the division has to lead the branch, and in some cases represent the people under him/her, is it not justified to think that a vice president who the people do not trust, regardless the reason, end up doing a bad job. Regardless of whether you had the merit to be chosen, the higher up were justified in not choosing you.

Affirmative action is bs, as it gives jobs to people simply because of their sex or race. Right now white males are generally the best for the job because we have the easiest access to education, making us more qualified, just because we have an unfair advantage doesn't mean we have to restrict our abilities to create a more balanced workforce. If anything this will weaken the working pool and the efficiency and output of the industry, all for the equal chance at getting a job, when some people are more qualified for that job then others.

In all fairness, the way it sounds in your paper is that all men should get paid more in logging. Is output the only thing that matters? What about injury rate or days taken off for sickness or personal leave. What about work ethic or attitude? These count for something as well.

Also, college is only PART about the grade. In fact, you'll find statistically that people who had mid-range GPA's tended to hold higher-paying jobs and those who had high GPA's in high school and college tended to have mid-range paying jobs.

1) If you'd like, let us review the paper (better yet, have someone irl life do it). Please include the actual assignment.
2) Go speak to him. Be polite and courteous (you're a diplomacy player; you can do this) and find out why he had a problem. Perhaps he misinterpreted what you said? Or, perhaps your paper really wasn't very good (See point 1)
3) If he is unwilling to meet with you or his view of your paper is unreasonable (he is deliberately misconstruing it), file a complaint at the ombudsman's office. Your college has one, even if you've never heard of it. Or, you can chose to ignore the incident, if you aren't the type of person who likes to fight.

The important thing is to play it smart and read the situation with your professor correctly. I find that if you are stern, persistent and (most importantly) overwhelmingly polite, you can get someone to do almost anything.

Tru Ninja, injury rates, sickness etc would be taken into account when calculating "output". Work ethic and attitude (in general) would affect output, as somebody with a good work ethic works harder, faster or more efficiently than someone without. The only part of all that I could see to be valid is attitude with co-workers: whether the worker indirectly augments the output of other workers, but indeed this is hard to measure and would more accurately reflect how much the boss likes said worker. I could go on to talk about personal leave and how maternity leave probably makes up a large proportion of this and a decent reason to pay women less according to your model, but that's an argument for another day.

Do most people really have this loathing/fear of their professors? Mine were great. They encourage us to think outside the box. They're also great people. I see them all the time in non-academic related settings.

I knew my dept. was particularly graced with good profs, but I didn't realize to such an extent as people seem to be saying...