Lasting Impact of Learning from Maitland Jones

I was a student of Maitland Jones at Princeton and am on faculty at NYU’s School of Medicine. The PAW article is a welcome and balanced addition to such a debate that is unfortunately raging through academia.

Maitland Jones was one of the finest professors that I ever had. He was rigorous and made us intellectually curious. Most of us scored near perfects on the MCAT exams because of him. Indeed, I would use what he taught me to obtain a U.K. medical license later in life. Those analytical processes and knowledge had not left me despite the passage of 25 years.

His comments about students not being dumber but less disciplined is true. NYU and the students made an error. Both will be poorer for it.

An acceptable accommodation would have been for the students to transfer to another class. That was probably rejected because a standardized test would have shown the superiority of Dr. Jones’ students who remained with him.