Poor Lecturing

Students at the start of a difficult course in one particular faculty of this university, have had a gruelling time this year in establishing a firm basis for their studies.

The following notes were taken practically word for word at a lecture, typical of those which have been delivered throughout the year.

'I think, I hope you can see, that the, no perhaps if I put it this way, but of course it would only be true if what shall I say— yes, two hundred pounds of meat, then one aspect of it is that it would, say in terms of meat, be worth say sixty pounds of steel, but, this is, you'll realise, only an estimate. It is therefore a decline, as I said, in value of, well — one would say; now, of course it is a little difficult, but perhaps —yes— this example would help — presuming conditions to be an equilibrium. I mean, you see, this point will come out later when we talk about uniform standards of living, but I'm talking now of average per head. That is to say —

(Here, a question was interpolated by one of the despairing students.)

"You say people are assumed to be rational — doesn't that mean that we assume that they rationalise their rationalities?"

(Now, the answer came.)

'No! . . . well, not exactly — that is to say, not really . . . well, I suppose you could say . . . yes.'

At this point, the notes ceased. The reporter was feeling sleepy.

The Question is: are we Being Taught Properly?