I don't know if you all are familiar with the whole Kevin Barrett business at U of Wisconsin-Madison. Essentially, this Mr. Barrett has been hired by the university as an adjuct instructor to teach a course on Islam. Part of the course will be a "week" on the "so-called 'war on terror'" (his words). He is a leading proponent of the notion that the attacks of 9/11/01 were part of an extensive government conspiracy, that the WTC towers were set off on purpose, etc.Well, it's caused an uproar in many circles. Prof. Althouse, a law professor at UW, has all the relevant background if you can stomach it.
I've got nothing to add to the discussion of whether or not 9/11 was a government 'program,' but this does remind me of a notion that's been rattling around in my brain for a bit: professors/instructors/teachers need to take seriously their position of power in the classroom. I note that many of these kinds of conflicts (see also the Crystall incident at UNC a couple of years ago) are often argued on the merits of the various arguments at play. What many of my colleagues in this profession seem to want to ignore is that their positions as graders, as evaluators of student performance, provides them with a powerful platform. It is not enough to simply aver that one "teaches all sides of the issue," or that "students needn't regurgitate what I tell them," or that "I'm just trying to start a conversation." First of all, most professors are pretty rotten at starting conversations. Second, anyone who says these things and believes them has forgotten what it's like to be 19 or 20 years old, away from home, and taking 4 or 5 classes at one time. Political content is one thing--it's to be expected. But to attempt to "defuse" purposefully incendiary course material by suggesting that students can just ignore it is plainly dishonest.
And it doesn't help matters that I've had more than one conversation where a colleague (at UNC) has told me in all seriousness that she doesn't believe the classroom is a "free speech zone." Yow.
Which makes my warning to my students particularly apt: "don't trust what your professors tell you!" They know I'm joking, but only partly.
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2 comments:
Really? I mean, really, really?
I think most professors are very aware of their position of power in the classroom. Which is partly why someone like Barrett is taking a lecturing gig. He knows he's got a tremendous amount of power and influence there. On top of that, though, I'm unclear what kind of influence this man has when teaching a purposefully controversial subject for one weekn in an unrequired course. The more interesting question to me is why a university would sanction this as "discourse." It is likely to be a dog and pony show composed of people who vehemently agree or disagree with Barrett on this one issue.
I would also contend that higher education is leaps and bounds ahead of where they were even twenty years ago on the issue of faculty power. Certainly older folks have told you about the sheer impossibility of questioning professors in "the old days," and before all this relativism and questioning the canon came up, much more information was portrayed as incontrovertible truth rather than one professor's notions.
And finally, I think our students are aware of this, and often try to use it to their advantage. This whole notion feeds into the way they justify bad grades on papers by claiming that it is because they disagreed with the professor or because the professor doesn't like them. While I agree that more students do see their profs as authority figures than don't, I think the average college campus--and certainly the very large power player campuses--is on board with the notion that professors are in a position of power over students and that that power should be taken seriously and handled responsibly.
With the explosion of media outlets and watchdog groups, these stories get highlighted to an almost preposterous extent. And it's a shame because it fuels the notion that professors are a bunch of out-of-touch nutjobs who are able to willy-nilly their time away and spew their opinions endlessly. While many are just worried about the statistical deviations in their student evaluations.
Thanks for the comment--I'm with you 100%. I should be fair and say that most of my colleagues seem to be honest, hardworking folks who just want to do their jobs the right way and get paid a modest amount for it. Knowing people like yourself, for instance, helps me remember that.
I am still curious, though, as to why the defense I outlined in the above post gets trotted out all the time when one of these folks is under scrutiny.
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