student fails assignment because professor thinks Australia isn't a country

An Idaho woman failed a college assignment because her professor didn't believe Australia was a country.

Ashley Arnold, 27 was taking the course as distance learning for her Sociology degree from Southern New Hampshire University, Buzzfeed reports.

She was supposed to compare a social norm in another country with the United States and she chose social media use in Australia.

However the professor failed her outright for the project, saying Ms Arnold did not correctly pick a country to compare the US to and instead chose a continent.

Australia is in fact the only place in the world to be both a country and a continent.

Ms Arnold told Buzzfeed she was shocked the professor had not checked whether she was wrong about Australia's status.

"If she's hesitating or questioning that, why wouldn't she just google that herself? " she said.

However when she queried her grade, and provided a library resource confirming Australia is a country, the professor doubled down on her belief it is only a continent.

"Research is like dominoes, if you accidentally knock over one piece the entire set will also fall," the professor said.

"Australia is a continent; it is not a country. That error made it nearly impossible for you to accurately complete your week 2 research outline correctly."

Ms Arnold then sent the professor a link to the Australian Government's "About Australia" page and the professor said she would do some "independent research" into whether Australia is a country or not.

Once that research was completed Ms Arnold quickly received an amended grade of B+ for the project, although the professor did not apologise for the error.

The university was however happy to apologise and refunded Ms Arnold the $1000 she spent on the course, a spokesperson saying they're well aware of the fact Australia is both a country and a continent.

https://www.msn.com/en-au/news/world/college-student-fails-assignment-because-professor-thinks-australia-isnt-a-country/ar-BBIVKZT?li=AAgfIYZ&ocid=ientp

Maddog wrote:The teacher had a PhD in Philosophy too. Shows you what they are worth.    

Original Quill wrote:

Maddog wrote:The teacher had a PhD in Philosophy too. Shows you what they are worth.    

What on earth would a PhD in Philosophy be doing teaching a course in Sociology?

Are you sure you don't mean simply a PhD: doctor of the philosophy of...?  The word philosophy comes from the Greek philosophia, meaning "love of knowledge, pursuit of wisdom; systematic investigation," from philo- "loving" + sophia - "knowledge, wisdom," from sophis "wise, learned;" of unknown origin.  Meaning "system a person forms for conduct of life"...  Otherwise known as a doctorate, it is the highest degree one can receive in a field or discipline.

PhD is a degree that applies to any discipline, derived from doctor of the knowledge of that field.  I hold two of them...Law and Political Theory.  A PhD is different from the discipline of philosophy, a field having to do with the ontology of being and epistemology of knowledge.  I would hazard a guess that that teacher has a PhD in Sociology.  They always seem to be removed from the real world.