https://blog.sciencenet.cn/blog-673617-1316327.html
2021-12-13 09:27 | System Classification: Comments
The morality and cultivation of the professor
Liu Qingsheng
(China University of Geosciences, Wuhan)
The other day I saw a video on the Internet of a professor at the University of California (the specifics are unknown) telling college students "why not cheat". The video also gives Chinese literal translation of whomever it came from. The california professor's core philosophy about why not cheat is: If you developed the habit of opportunism during college, what would you do when you actually went to work? What is the best result after cheating? You're just going to put yourself in the position of doing things you don't know how to do and you don't like to do all the time. So, don't cheat if cheating you're hurting yourself. Over the years, there is also a similar content film in the PPT of the "I Talk About College Life" public welfare report for college freshmen, which explains why I oppose cheating from another side: College students need to soberly realize that learning is your own business! In order to live a dignified and happy life for yourself and your family, you must study hard, study hard, and study hard, rather than opportunistic and looking for shortcuts! Therefore, I strongly oppose learning to cope with exams, or even cheating on exams, which not only undermines fairness and fairness, but loses the most basic moral bottom line of being a human being. This would be despised anywhere in the world! Spurned! Even punished by law.
I distributed the Chinese and English text materials of the University of California professor videos to a number of scholars, which caused some positive repercussions among some of them. University of California professor on "Why not cheat?" "It seems to be aimed at college students, but in fact it can be aimed at the entire academic community and the officialdom." As one professor replied on WeChat: Not just students. Academic leaders and academicians must take the lead (against cheating). A senior at Zhengzhou University said: "I don't cheat, I don't have the guts to cheat." I replied to her and also wanted to know why not to cheat. She explained: "Cheating loses the ability to think independently and do things independently, things still have to be done by themselves, and the road of life still has to be walked by themselves." Cheating also makes people distrust you." I was pleased with the college student's answer. The phenomenon of cheating in academia seems to be strange, it is a very terrible phenomenon, it poses a serious threat to the credibility of academia, it should not be underestimated, this topic is related to the character and cultivation of scholars.
Recently, I was told that a university professor recently invited technicians from relevant departments of a well-known technology company to give lectures to his students who served as class teachers. The research and development products engaged in by this technology company are consistent with the direction of the students' majors, and the purpose of the professor is to let students understand the close relationship between professional learning and industry in advance, so as to stimulate students' enthusiasm for learning and improve the quality of college students' learning. The technical staff of the enterprise especially mentioned the topic of the character and cultivation of the homeroom teacher on relevant occasions. He said that the professor's academic style was rigorous, and his moral character and cultivation were excellent, which was why he was willing to accept the professor's invitation to give a lecture to the university students. Where do I think that came from? It turned out that after returning to China, this professor had been invited to contact the technical directors of some relevant science and technology enterprises to "exchange skills". After understanding the professor's research direction through the research of the relevant technical supervisors of these activities, I hope that he can carry out scientific research on relevant technical cooperation for the enterprise. However, the professor first thanked the technical leaders of the enterprise for their trust, and then made it clear that I have been mainly engaged in basic research for many years, and I have not yet had the desire and vision to carry out technology research and development. Because, after many years of overseas study and work experience, he understands that the most urgent thing in this field is basic research for certain key technologies (we often call card neck technology). Therefore, he said, he will not take money from enterprises to do applied technology research for the time being. In just a few years, the professor's view has been deeply admired and appreciated by some business executives. The technician who taught the undergraduate students this time said that the professor was obviously different from some university professors who valued money very much. These professors like to exaggerate their ability to solve practical problems, a bit of a bluff, in order to make money from "horizontal projects" from enterprises. Because, at present, the university is more strict in the management of scientific research project funds for national and provincial and ministerial projects, commonly known as vertical project funds, it is generally difficult to get too much money from it to "improve the quality of family life". As far as I know, some universities clearly stipulate that university teachers can pay a certain amount of funds as legal income from horizontal (enterprise) scientific research projects. This stimulates everyone's enthusiasm to take the project from the enterprise, regardless of whether they have the strength or not. At this time, it is inevitable to take horizontal scientific research projects based on relationships, because with relationship projects, it is easy to make mistakes.
There is no doubt that among the professors of our universities, there will be expert professors who will seriously study the cooperative scientific research projects of enterprises as a solution to the neck of the card, which we call the main battlefield of the national economy and "write papers on the land of the motherland". Whether it is a university or a scientific research institute in our country, the vast majority of cultivating talents should belong to this kind of application-oriented talents. For example, Mr. Yuan Longping, a rice expert whom I admire, and Mr. Wang Xuan, the former vice chairman of the Jiusan Society, the vice chairman of the Central Committee of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, and Mr. Wang Xuan, the inventor of the computer Chinese character laser illumination system and the electronic publishing system. In fact, if you can really solve some technical problems for the enterprise, you should have a sense of achievement, why worry about publishing papers. I have seen that some professors at some key universities who mainly do horizontal projects do not seem to be confused by the pressure of thesis examination. Some teachers have long been trusted by enterprises for long-term cooperation, and their lives are also very elegant. But it is also undeniable that we do have some professors who are keen to take horizontal projects, and these professors can get a large number of horizontal projects not because of how capable he is, but because of various relationships, eating and drinking rebates and other means, which leads to the phenomenon of cheating on scientific research results. In these professors, it is difficult to see the noble character and moral cultivation that a true scholar should have.
December 13, 2021