Friday, October 28, 2005
Academic Rights
Among the many side-issues running through Congress recently has been the so-called Academic Bill of Rights (see also). It seems such federal legislation would protect students, in their right to free expression, and from any one who has a view contrary to their own.
The claim is that the academic world is so packed with liberals, especially among the faculty ranks, that students of a politically or socially conservative ideology are discriminated against. Conservative students claim they can’t speak their minds, lest they be pounced upon. Conservative students claim they must conform to their professors’ ideologies, whatever they may be, to pass their classes. Some have even made the value-for-money argument, saying they are not getting the quality education they are paying for, as conservative students.
What utter rubbish!
First of all, both students and faculty already enjoy protected expression. The First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States guarantees it. There is no classroom abeyance clause, suspending basic rights in the classroom. The higher –ed classroom is exactly the place for the unfettered, free-flowing exchange of ideas. However, many don’t seem to realize the true implications of that: if everyone gets to freely express their ideas, that means we are going to be exposed to new and different ideas, much of which we may not want to hear. The whole point of higher education is to expose one’s self to that which is new and different. (At least, it was; I fear that today higher education in America means nothing more than credentialism.) Indeed, academia may just be the very last stand for free expression in the United States, the media, polite society and the hoi polloi having all given up on it.
If we dig a little deeper it is clear this is yet another attack on education by the powers that be, to advance their own ultraconservative ideology. It is all well and good that ideas should be freely exchanged, they say, so long as those ideas are ours. How many policy issues in education today have nothing to do with teaching or learning, instead attempting to create a very narrow, very limited intellectual environment? Tyrants have long known that if you keep the people stupid, and sated with bread and circuses, their rule is assured.
But let us not let the academic community of the hook. Students have a clear responsibility in this exchange of ideas: speak up! If you are a college or university student, and find yourself in a classroom wherein your views or ideology is being dismissed, attacked or misrepresented, speak up! Avail yourself of your extant Constitutional and academic rights. Too many students are mere sheep, or worse, they just don’t care about what’s going on in their lives. Students also have to recognize that on any given day, the faculty are spokespersons, sales agents and story-tellers, relating facts and ideas not their own, but which are needful for true mastery of the subject. Further, students have to be open to the experience and willing in the first place, and give themselves over to the intellectual process. Aristotle said it was the mark of an educated mind to entertain an idea without accepting it.
And professors have a responsibility in this exchange of ideas as well: do what is right. It is not useful to needlessly politicize a math class. Recognize your responsibility to the subject matter comes first, your editorials second. Do not dismiss, denigrate or diminish any students who disagree with you. Indeed, debate them honestly and calmly, and see what learning ensues. Above all, don’t make students’ minds up for them, make them think for themselves, draw their own conclusions, form their own philosophies, and encourage them to do so at all times. And if you do rant in the classroom, don’t cowardly hide behind tenure after the fact.
In the end, this so-called Academic Bill of Rights is nothing more than a conservative shill, to subvert higher education. Students have guaranteed free expression, if they choose to use it. But if you’re going to dish it out, be ready to take it as well. And if you can’t take the heat, go to Bob Jones University.
The claim is that the academic world is so packed with liberals, especially among the faculty ranks, that students of a politically or socially conservative ideology are discriminated against. Conservative students claim they can’t speak their minds, lest they be pounced upon. Conservative students claim they must conform to their professors’ ideologies, whatever they may be, to pass their classes. Some have even made the value-for-money argument, saying they are not getting the quality education they are paying for, as conservative students.
What utter rubbish!
First of all, both students and faculty already enjoy protected expression. The First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States guarantees it. There is no classroom abeyance clause, suspending basic rights in the classroom. The higher –ed classroom is exactly the place for the unfettered, free-flowing exchange of ideas. However, many don’t seem to realize the true implications of that: if everyone gets to freely express their ideas, that means we are going to be exposed to new and different ideas, much of which we may not want to hear. The whole point of higher education is to expose one’s self to that which is new and different. (At least, it was; I fear that today higher education in America means nothing more than credentialism.) Indeed, academia may just be the very last stand for free expression in the United States, the media, polite society and the hoi polloi having all given up on it.
If we dig a little deeper it is clear this is yet another attack on education by the powers that be, to advance their own ultraconservative ideology. It is all well and good that ideas should be freely exchanged, they say, so long as those ideas are ours. How many policy issues in education today have nothing to do with teaching or learning, instead attempting to create a very narrow, very limited intellectual environment? Tyrants have long known that if you keep the people stupid, and sated with bread and circuses, their rule is assured.
But let us not let the academic community of the hook. Students have a clear responsibility in this exchange of ideas: speak up! If you are a college or university student, and find yourself in a classroom wherein your views or ideology is being dismissed, attacked or misrepresented, speak up! Avail yourself of your extant Constitutional and academic rights. Too many students are mere sheep, or worse, they just don’t care about what’s going on in their lives. Students also have to recognize that on any given day, the faculty are spokespersons, sales agents and story-tellers, relating facts and ideas not their own, but which are needful for true mastery of the subject. Further, students have to be open to the experience and willing in the first place, and give themselves over to the intellectual process. Aristotle said it was the mark of an educated mind to entertain an idea without accepting it.
And professors have a responsibility in this exchange of ideas as well: do what is right. It is not useful to needlessly politicize a math class. Recognize your responsibility to the subject matter comes first, your editorials second. Do not dismiss, denigrate or diminish any students who disagree with you. Indeed, debate them honestly and calmly, and see what learning ensues. Above all, don’t make students’ minds up for them, make them think for themselves, draw their own conclusions, form their own philosophies, and encourage them to do so at all times. And if you do rant in the classroom, don’t cowardly hide behind tenure after the fact.
In the end, this so-called Academic Bill of Rights is nothing more than a conservative shill, to subvert higher education. Students have guaranteed free expression, if they choose to use it. But if you’re going to dish it out, be ready to take it as well. And if you can’t take the heat, go to Bob Jones University.
