I've already blogged about the anti-academic freedom bill currently making its way through the state legislature. State Rep. Dennis Baxley and others are apparently trying to ram the bill through by fabricating stories:
TALLAHASSEE - College student Elle Lahesa described a humiliating experience in her history class the day after Sept. 11, 2001.
At a news conference with reporters this week, Lahesa said professor Donald Barry told a class at Tallahassee Community College that America deserved the terrorist attacks - "every bit of it." . . . .
At the news conference, Lahesa, a former Marine, said she was dressed in her Marine uniform. She said she challenged the professor's remarks but was quickly silenced.
She said Barry told her, "You have no right to talk. You are just a baby killer."
Lahesa, who also claimed students spat on her after class, stood by her story on Wednesday.
"He either (a) forgot it; or (b) is afraid of losing his job," she said.
Lahesa, who now attends Florida State University, said she didn't know any of her community college classmates and, hence, couldn't call any of them to corroborate her story.
Uh huh. I have to say that no matter how passionate I am about teaching, I've never had the kind of influence over students that Lahesa describes. To be able to persuade a group of otherwise peaceful community college students to spit on another student in a Marine uniform? Immediately after September 11? I cannot imagine having the sort of spooky mind powers that would take. I don't even want to imagine it. I'd settle for influencing students to do their homework.
In any event, that's not what I want to blog about. The radical extremes of right wingers in my state's legislature haven't really shocked me. What has shocked me is the contempt in which some of my colleagues, particularly those in business and engineering, hold those of us in the liberal arts. (Let's remember now--I am speaking for myself, NOT for my employer, in this post.)
I guess I should have expected it, but still I wasn't prepared to hear views like these from my "colleagues" (sent in response to a faculty union email calling for action):
Of course you've got it wrong! The bill's designed to stop the opinionated liberal nonsense so many of our colleagues spew forth in class at the expense of captive listeners. Why not put your time & energy into cautioning those who unable to make themselves heard elsewhere pontificate personal themes other than what they're paid to teach. Were these renegade academicians solely exercising their freedom as academic experts to advance knowledge in their fields, the current bill wouldn't be circulating in Tallahassee, as well as similar measures under consideration in other state legislatures. In my view, your semi-hysteria on this matter is quite unwarrented [sic].
And this one (in response to a request for discussion of possible action by the faculty senate):
The bill was authored by a member of the legislature who personally experienced, as many of us have, political correctness and tendentious political leaning in his college history and political science classes. He had to regurgitate opinions and interpretations of the subject that were not his in order to pass a course. His experience is that he was graded on his point of view rather than his ability to make a cogent argument based on a thesis. I understand that the bill is aimed at the liberal arts and it is for good reason. Political science, history, philosophy, etc... are open to interpretation and are not subject to rigorous tests of right and wrong as in the sciences, physics, biology etc...therefore, one must ensure that in the course of pedagogy, the methodologies of the discipline are taught and that the subject matter is presented without political prejudice. If this is the case, then there is nothing to worry about. If political science, history, etc... are taught with prejudice a single point of view, then the experts will be required to present these as well. I personally see no reason to alarm and raise an army of opposition to this bill. On the contrary, open-minded and liberal people should espouse this bill as it ensures the ability of teachers and students to be exposed to all points of view: left, center, right, and out of the ballpark.
Shortly after that message was sent, the faculty senate steering committee dismissed concerns about this bill as "anticipatory." Apparently, we should wait until harmful bills become law, and only then protest them.
It amazes me how many people think this bill limits itself to what instructors SAY in the classroom. It does not. It encourages students to sue if they feel they have been discriminated against, whether or not anyone ever "pontificates" about anything. Did students feel the choice of text was discriminatory? Did students resent the fact that the course required the scientific method despite their personal antipathy toward it? Did students feel that some idea they personally hold (intelligent design or whatever--though Baxley is apparently now distancing himself from the intelligent design debate) was not given enough classroom time? Did students feel they were in a classroom climate that discouraged their participation? Did students feel their bad grade was due, at least in part, to the fact that the professor didn't like* something about them? Well then, if Baxley's bill passes, those students and their lawyers will be very happy.
I wish someone would form an advocacy group devoted to "helping" students who feel they have been treated unfairly in their engineering or business classes. The hard sciences have already had a taste of the damage ignorance can do to their disciplines (as anyone who reads Pharyngula or Preposterous Universe knows), but the high-paid trade schools really think they are immune.
* Whenever I hear a student complain, "Professor X gave me a bad grade because he didn't like me," I am reminded of the response a colleague has given to students in his large lecture classes: "What do you mean, I don't 'like' you? I don't even KNOW you." I think that response is easier for men to give than women, but it's true no matter what the teacher's gender.
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