In article
<51cfd7fa-5605-4697-8575-7360ffa65dfd@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>,
kujebak <kujebak@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indoctrinate_U
Generally, I don't use someone else's material to buttress my points.
That would be intellectually dishonest. But thsi post is very well
written and I think worth reading.
The big problem I have with the reasoning of my conservative
friends is they assume that ³either youıre with us or against us.² In
their black and white universe, there are only the good people
(conservatives) and the bad people (liberals). There are the people who
love America (Republicans) and the people who hate it (Democrats).
Simplistic *****sments like this can be heard on Fox News relentlessly
and found on all too many right wing blogs. So now, we have a
do***entary that offers the same tired myths. Just what the world needs.
I teach at Emerson College in Boston and also at the University of
Massachusetts. Iım one of those people who is liberal on some issues,
moderate on some, and conservative on a couple but in Maloneyıs world,
I guess I donıt exist, since evidently an educator must come down on the
side of good (his side) or the side of evil (everyone who doesnıt like
President Bush). I doubt heıd believe me, but many of my colleagues
donıt toe a rigid ³party line² and not everyone on the faculty votes
for the Democrats. But even if we all did what would that prove? My job
isnıt to recruit for the Democratic party. My job as a professor of
journalism is to teach my students how to do serious analysis of the
information they are given, find the stories that deserve to be covered,
get beyond the ³spin,² and recognize manipulation of facts when they see
it whether itıs right wing or left wing or whatever.
And speaking of manipulating facts, Maloney and his fellow
conservatives like to take the extremes as present them as if they are
typical I donıt know many liberals or moderates at either college where
I teach who think Ward Churchill is the next best thing to sliced bread,
yet Maloney asserts that every liberal professor adores the guy. Truth
be told, I know a lot of professors who wouldnıt know Ward Churchill if
they hadnıt seen the right wing TV shows huffing and puffing about him.
But no, he does NOT represent the ³typical² liberal. I am not sure there
really is a ³typical² liberal except for the mythic one the right wing
loves to attack. Can you say Straw Man argument?
And since Maloney seems to think all of us Blue State educators
lack the proper values, may I mention that I used to teach Sunday
School, I can quote scripture with the best of them, I have 2
step-daughters who served in the military, and I donıt hate America I
just donıt like our current administration and its assault on civil
liberties, so I guess Iım a commie in his book. I wonder if heıs ever
really talked to some of us allegedly liberal educators. But no, itıs so
much easier to stereotype us.
Yes, some of my colleagues like Chomsky, but some wish he had
stuck to linguistics. At the risk of stating the obvious, as educators,
our job is to make students think. So, we have them study and discuss
all sorts of theorists. Some of those theorists are from the left, and
some are from other ends of the political spectrum. If I ask my students
to read a Marxist critic, am I then guilty of training future Marxists?
Maloney seems to think that even reading from left-wing scholars makes
one a traitor-in-waiting. I find it ironic that he seems to want to
censor reading lists and political beliefs, all the while claiming itıs
the left who engage in thought control.
I wish heıd come to one of my cl*****. He would see that, like
many educators, I insist upon my students looking at both sides of the
issues. they are expected to read both left-wing and right-wing
publications, along with those generally perceived as objective. How
else can they gather the facts if they donıt explore various viewpoints?
Also, when I give my opinion, I let students know itıs my OPINION. If
they quote it back to me on a quiz, my eyes will glaze over. I donıt
want students to agree with everything I say. I just want them to
consider my opinions, as I will consider theirs. Discourse is about
respect, wouldnıt you say?
What would make me happy is if my friends on the right would stop
demonizing the campus as a hotbed of radicals and traitors. I am a media
historian and I must tell you this tactic has been used by the right
since the turn of the last century. It was dishonest in 1920, and itıs
dishonest today. Liberals are not destroying our kids, and conservatives
are not saving them. There are other very real problems with todayıs
educational system, but blaming it on too many (allegedly) liberal
professors is utter nonsense. Based on my 25 years of teaching and being
a guest lecturer in a number of cities, I seriously doubt that most
campuses are liberal some DEPARTMENTS, yes. Entire campuses, not so
much.
I am tired of people like Maloney stereotyping and maligning my
profession. His evidence is largely anecdotal, and his assertions are
based on distorted information. Shame on him for letting his ideology
determine the story line of his so-called do***entary.
Posted by Donna L. Halper
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