BREAKING NEWS – New York City, New York – New York University’s firing of Professor Maitland Jones Jr., following student complaints about poor grades has lit a fuse under parents who say the lowering of academic standards in U.S. school is doing students no favors.
Jones, an award-winning professor of organic chemistry, taught for four decades at Princeton before NYU. Princeton University’s Dean of Faculty credited him with pioneering a new way of teaching that emphasized problem-based learning over a “lecture-memorize-regurgitate facts” style.
But last May, 82 of Jones’ 350 NYU students signed a petition against him arguing that the course was too hard and blaming Jones for their poor test scores. The subject taught has an infamous reputation in the academic world for rigorous learning. The students also complained that due to him constantly giving them homework, it inhibited their social lives which “triggered depression”, and instead of them having time to hang out with friends using recreational drugs, they felt they were being coerced into getting a degree in chemistry.