Wandering Professor

Thanks for the very polite comments or complaints about discussions wandering. These points are well taken: focus must be the responsibility of the professor, not that of the students. Likewise, when the professor fails to make something clear, surely that is not the fault of any student.

Students make a large commitment to coursework, a commitment that often goes unacknowledged. Students should insist on satisfaction. When the prof wanders or fails to explain something clearly, a question usually helps everyone. A question that appears later, in the blog, for instance, may be helpful as well.

None of this means that any student bears responsibility to produce questions or produce "the right questions," let alone to organize the class. But hopefully the opportunity to respond will reduce the frustration of learning in an imperfect environment from imperfect instructors.