[vanusa]

OK - but the idea of a "filter class" is simply that the material itself is somewhat challenging, and the class syllabus is fairly fast-paced.

Not that you put banana peels in front of the students (like problem sets with no exercises). As it to discourage them for the sake of discouraging them.

[zozbot234]

That's how you would design a filter class, if you were trying to actually treat students fairly. The point is that de-facto "filter" or "weeder" classes can arise wholly organically (as in, 100% organic banana peels!) as the hopefully-unintended consequence of abysmal-quality teaching. And OP seems to be talking about something very much like the latter, not the former.

[vanusa]

Yeah, I guess I'm kind of nostalgic for the days when being a college instructor was still considered a viable profession in itself.

[vanusa]

"As if to"