Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Entrapment or Free Speech?

I say outrageous things in class. I admit it. I've often told classes that at some time during the semester they will either be insulted or embarrassed or ridiculed. It isn't personal. It will be about their ideas or thinking on a class-relevant topic. I also warn them that simply because I say something in class, do not assume that it is my core belief. Quite often the position is pure food for thought or Devil's Advocacy.

I'm not sure what to believe about this:

Looks Like a Setup

The missing key ingredient for me to make a definitive decision on the issue is knowing exactly what the assignment was. I lean toward total academic freedom. What is said in class, stays in class and provides the raw material for thinking about a topic. You might find some of my proposals reminiscent of Jonathan Swift's "Modest Proposal."

The student apparently is one of the born again, saved by Jesus evangelical Christians. That's fine. It is his right. The professor apparently is a classroom dictator. I identify with that and like the concept. I control the discussions in my classroom as well.

If the assignment was truly "open-ended" as it says in the news blurb, then he got what he asked for, random topics which might not conform to his learning objectives yet still are acceptable. If the assignment was more specific, then I would have to say that the student came loaded with the intention of creating an issue. He apparently had no trouble getting the ACLU, Focus on the Family and the Alliance Defense Fund all lined up to cry foul in short order. Pretty powerful lineup for a community college incident. That's entrapment.

My underlying opinion is that free speech is always the preferred option, even when the speech doesn't fit my own thinking. But my classroom is not a free speech zone. The student pays to enter and learn what I have to offer him. I get paid to provide that. No one compels the student to take my class. They are not under duress and they can quit anytime up until the thirteenth week of a fourteen week semester. The classroom is most assuredly not their personal stump for prosyletizing.

I'm with the prof on this one.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Set up? Tough to tell. The student certainly seemed to be looking for a conflict, but then the professor sounds a bit overbearing too. More here:

http://townhall.com/columnists/MikeSAdams/2009/02/16/ask_god_what_your_grade_is&Comments=true

In my experience, the healthiest academic environments have been in private colleges--Catholic and Jewish. Community colleges can sometimes be reasonable places too.

State universities, however, are terrible and I never want to teach in one again, mostly because of PC, the Left, and the rest of it....

Anonymous said...

http://townhall.com/columnists/Mike
SAdams/2009/02/16
/ask_god_what_your_grade_is&Comment
s=true?page=full&comments=true

Anonymous said...

This is definitely a tough call. I think that the teacher went over the line, assuming he did call the student a 'fascist bastard' (entrapment is knowing the teacher will get angry and filming it, but who could predict that a prof would resort to name-calling?), but if the student was trying to dominate the classroom and refused to stop when asked reasonably by the teacher, then the teacher is in his right to direct the discussion elsewhere. However, if the teacher did slander the student in his outburst, then perhaps some light wrist-slapping is in order.

Bringing in the ACLU, though, is definitely ridiculous on the student's part. This isn't a protest march through campus square, or one of those 'affirmative action cookie stands' you hear about every now and then (you know, white guy gets a cookie for $2, black guy gets a cookie for $1) - this is a classroom, and the teacher is the law (within reason of course).