Whiff of McCarthy as pupils out teachers

This is a perfect example from the Washington Post. However, in this case it's students themselves objecting to course content.

Students Call for Banning of Peace Studies Class

The students haven't taken the course, naturally. They're regurgitating talking points straight from David Horowitz, who now has a "list" just like McCarthy. The students should be ashamed of themselves, IMO. If you're going to try to get a course banned, you should probably take it and see how it actually operates. A professor who refused to allow conservatives to object, or ridiculed them, or graded them poorly because they disagreed would be out of line. But it's absolutely mandatory that teachers be allowed to present material that challenges students, and not just intellectually.

So a public school teacher in a public school classroom speaking to a large group of students somehow expects his loony conspiracy theories to somehow be considered private?

Why should an off-topic rant in geography class be considered immune from criticism?

Typical left-wing anti-logic.

mad-

So one teacher making a Hitler comparison, plus Ward Churchill = time for a witch-hunt?

As for "typical left-wing anti-logic," you'd have to be awfully irresponsible not to consider the teacher's comments out of line. I'm a liberal, so I have some sympathy for the teacher's sentiments (although not his choice of comparisons). I've had excellent teachers in the past who managed to instill a healthy skepticism towards government without ever letting me know where they stood ideologically.

Maybe instead of worrying about ideologically-biased teachers, we should be worrrying about bad teachers.

Horowitz spoke at Duke last week. He was met with a ton of student-led protesting. I would never pay to hear him speak, but from what I gathered from the writeup in the student newspaper, he accused dozens of Duke professors (by name no less) of being "unqualified to teach". That's a laughable statement at best. Nobody in their right mind would doubt the credentials of Duke professors (or the credentials of professors at other top schools). To get tenure, these people have to be pretty damn smart in their subject matter.

One freshman was quoted in the newspaper as saying:
"I felt he did a poor job of providing evidence and answering the questions [audience members] asked," Miller said. "It didn't really seem like the open exchange of ideas that he says he supports."

You can read the article here:
Horowitz Stirs Up Crowd In Page

The right to free speech does not imply immunity from criticism, or protection from all consequences.

Joe Smith may be a Nazi on his own time, and he can preach that junk on a soapbox in the park if he likes, but if he uses Calculus class to spread his stupid ideology, he ought to be yanked from class.

This Bennish moron's rant is just as evil and stupid.

err, I left the end off of one of my sentences...

"I'm a liberal, so I have some sympathy for the teacher's sentiments (although not his choice of comparisons)

...but I condemn him for speaking that way in a high school classroom."

I think that gets my point across a little better.

Irma - I agree 100%, is there anything as true objectivity? We are all colored by our past. Im traveling throughout Europe this summer, will be passing through the Netherlands, any suggestions on what I should see?

You can go to Amsterdam and see where famed film director Theo van Gogh was shot and then stabbed to death by an enraged Islamofascist in 2004.

Or you can visit Hilversum and see where politician Pim Fortuyn was shot to death by an animal rights extremist, before Mr Fortuyn could win the upcoming national election in 2002.

Then you can come back and tell us all on Newsvine how the Netherlands has no "controversies".

About the Peace Studies class:

It's an elective. That means that students aren't required to take it for credit, they choose to. "Peace Studies" is a fairly obviously liberal leaning class, meaning the sort of people who are going to want to take it are probably already liberals. This isn't the case of brainwashing that people seem to want make it out to be.

I think if this was a required class, then yes, there'd be a problem. This however, doesn't strike me as sinister enough to require a ban.

Misleading title - a student recording their professor is McCarthy-like? Big brother, with all his traffic cameras, phone taps, and his kids in the National Union Youth Front at school with their voice recorders are ready to blacklist and blackmail all those neutral teachers. It's amazing there aren't boatloads of ex-patriots fleeing this land of the overseers.

If there'd have had an iPod that could record lectures when I went to school to help me review my lecture notes, the red light would be burning.

Keep spreading the FUD.

I attend UCLA. There has been some talk about whatshisname who offers 100 bucks to rat out a leftist teacher, but its viewed as a pretty ridiculous thing by most students and faculty. The university will not fire anyone because of that "list," and most everyone that goes to UCLA understands that the majority of teachers fall towards the left because by nature education is a liberal practice (as this article proves – documenting right wing conservatives who want to censor opinions because they don't agree with them). The key to it all is keeping an open point of view and encouraging discussions from all sides of the spectrum, not shutting off a persons potentially valuable perspective.

I saw this teacher on Today the other morning and I wasn't convinced. He tried to explain tht as a Social Studies teacher he had an obligation to bring some sort of stimuli to the class room, hence the Hitler/Bush reference. But he never seemed to dispute whether or not those were or were not his beliefs, as wacked out as they may be.

I am all for discourse, especially in our schools. There might be a reason why America's high school graduates are pretty much brain-dead, they don't really work their minds at all. Teachers in this instance should be more like moderators. Assign the class to watch the State of the Union and be prepared to debate what you saw and heard. And the teacher becomes a very well informed moderator.

Is it me or is it entirely impossible to hold our principles to ourselves once in a while in this media enriched age. With blogs, talk radio and now sites like Newsvine (don't get me wrong, I love this site) everyone is given the opportunity to spew their angst or philosophy. I just think that teachers, when in the classroom, should teach the children the required coursework and call it a day.

I learned 25 years ago during my freshman year in college that most professors were left leaning. Much more revealing to me, they were much less tolerant of alternative ideas/discussions than the few right leaning professors. I really think that this is the "dirty little secret" that is driving the current political swing the the right. I learned very quickly to write my papers in (required) social science courses from a left perspective. I quickly went from getting marked up C's to all A's and a few B's from the exact same professors. Just by purposely writing from the left! Are these schools teaching top-secret courses? What's wrong with shining a light on what/how subjects are being taught and opening up these types of discussions? Tape all the professors and weed out those ideologues on the left and right and get on with teaching/discussing the subjects at hand.

@ Dave MacArthur
That was 25 years ago. Things have changed since then, so I don't think it's fair to make that kind of statement concerning today's professors.

Yes, it is worse now.

Madbad-

You've got a pretty firm grip on the current right-wing talking points, but that's about it. How is it worse now? Do you, as a college student, have specific examples? Or are we going to hear about the school in Wisconsin that banned the Declaration of Independence for the 190382905229083th time?

Your contribution to this thread has been one valid argument (people in public positions should be prepared to deal with the consequences if the public views their statements as out-of-line), a snide comment on the horrors of life in the Netherlands based on an (intentional?) misinterpretation of another commenter's statement, and a series of mocking references to the obsolescence of the left.

Keep an eye on points #1 and #2 on the Honor Code. I hope you'll hold yourself to a higher standard here than you do at Little Green Footballs.

@decks

I must say that your ad hominem attacks don't really affect my behavior. Did you learn those techniques at Daily Kos?

Perhaps I can help you escape your morass of factlessness.

How about this:

In 1995, a systematic study documenting political choices of American professors was conducted.

The party registrations of professors at Cornell University and Stanford University, were tallied from elections bureaus in the counties where their colleges are based.

199 Cornell professors and 186 Stanford profs who had registered themselves as either Democrats or Republicans in the records of the Tompkins County Board of Elections or the Santa Clara County Registrar of Voters.

These individuals were arrayed in nine different faculties, including mainstream departments like government/political science, economics, sociology, and history where it is hard to see how balanced instruction can take place without a range of political viewpoints.

The results: The Cornell sample showed 171 Democrats, 7 Republicans, and 21 professors registered as independents or in other (mostly left-wing) parties. The Stanford professors broke out this way: 163 Democrats, 17 Republicans, and 6 independent/other.

86% Democrat in one, 88% Democrat in the other.

Academia does not "look like America."

Why is this such a shock? The majority of teachers are liberal, and when you get to college- it is 50 X worse. I just wish instead of teaching students their "views" they would prepare them for the real world.

The National Association of Scholars supported some similar, academically rigorous, work.

The findings? Not shocking to anyone inhabiting Reality.

In Spring 2003, a large-scale survey of American academics was conducted using academic association membership lists from six fields: Anthropology, Economics, History, Philosophy (political and legal), Political Science, and Sociology.

This paper focuses on one question: To which political party have the candidates you've voted for in the past ten years mostly belonged? The question was answered by 96.4 percent of academic respondents.

The results show that the faculty is heavily skewed towards voting Democratic.

The most lopsided fields surveyed are Anthropology with a D to R ratio of 30.2 to 1, and Sociology with 28.0 to 1.

The least lopsided is Economics with 3.0 to 1.

After Economics, the least lopsided is Political Science with 6.7 to 1. The average of the six ratios by field is about 15 to 1.

Our analysis and related research suggest that for the the social sciences and humanities overall, a "one-big-pool" ratio of 7 to 1 is a safe lower-bound estimate, and 8 to 1 or 9 to 1 are reasonable point estimate. Thus, the social sciences and humanities are dominated by Democrats.

There is little ideological diversity.

I have to say that I just don't agree with the title of this thread. To say that taping a professer or teacher giving a lecture has a 'whiff of McCarthy' is ludicrous. I will also say that there is an inherent danger to listening to tapes made by students. I have to question their motives. I do not doubt for a minute that there are liberal professors in our schools at all levels. I don't doubt for a minute that many of these professors allow (intentionally or unintentionally) their liberal views to color not only their lectures but also their grading standards. My issue is that without listening to more then just an excerpt of the professor it is difficult to truly understand what is being said and how it is being delivered. (This holds true for either right or left rants/extremist views).

I fully support a transparency in our teaching institutions. I suggest that all lectures should be recorded. This would provide security for both the instructor and the student and provide a basis to prove/disprove any accusations.

I am not a parent, but if I were I would want to know what was being taught to my kid(s). I think it would be my right. These professors at the public school level are public servants and what they say/do in the public classroom should be of interest to us all. They are speaking to the future of our country. When it comes to universities, the students (or their parents etc) are paying for the classes and have the right to know what is being taught. They have 'purchased' that lecture etc.

Just my thoughts.

This wasn't a one time deal, concerning the taping. I heard that the boy involved tapes a lot of lectures so he has something to go back to. Just so happened he taped a good one.

@daweb

I agree.

A student reporting that a geography teacher was spending class time on loony conspiracy political left-wing rants does not emit a "whiff of McCarthyism."

But the teacher's behavior is a big, steaming pile of Chomskyism.