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This happens in public schools to, and teachers "need"
tenure? Little wonder, true?
A good reporter would do a little investigating and report
just how prevalent it is. Kids are afraid to say anything, and those
that do reap the wrath of tenured teachers. How about it reporters?
What are you afraid of? Don't the kids deserve to be heard?
Time to do away with tenure? All tenure?
Professor Tells Conservative Students
in Class: 'Blood Will Be On Your Hands'
Conservatives have long told anecdotes about the outrageous
behavior of some liberal university professors, but now there is video
to prove it. After getting a tip from a Louisiana State University
student, a web-based organization called Campus Reform sent a cameraman
into Professor Bradley E. Schaefer's freshman Astronomy 1101 class.
The course description says the class is about "fundamental
principles of the solar system," but on this particular day the topic
was U.S. policy on global warming. Students were asked to sit in
sections according to what they think the U.S. should do about global
warming, with choices including do nothing, follow Kyoto accords,
mandate birth control or eliminate all engines, among others.
The video
shows Schaefer berating students who chose the "do nothing" option,
saying "Oh boy, that's really good for you, at least for the next
decade or two. And then you will remember having sat on that corner,
because you will not want to tell your children, if they live . . .
that you were part of the trouble, right? Do you realize that?"
The professor continued with a highly ideological rant on
global warming. "There is universal agreement among scientists. . . .
Global warming is real; it's caused by humanity." He repeatedly
asserted, "It's only going to get worse," but failed to mention the
many respected scientists who have publicly expressed skepticism about
anthropogenic global warming.
Near the end of the class, Schaefer asked students to
discuss questions he prepared for each group and to report their
answers to the class. The paper given to the "do nothing" policy group
read:
Your professed policies have a substantial likelihood of
leading to the death of a billion people or more.
- Estimate the probability that you personally will be killed
in an ugly way because of your decision.
- What is the probability that any children of yours will die
in ugly ways due to your current decision?
When this group's spokesman was called upon to give the
group's response, Schaefer continually interrupted him, making comments
like, "Screwing the science is wrong. You're an ostrich putting your
head in the sand." When the student tried to continue, Schaefer
scoffed, "What about the 40,000 people in Europe already killed because
of your decision?"
Finally, a student from another group yelled, "Let him
answer." Schaefer stopped interrupting, but resorted to juvenile
theatrics, mocking the student with gestures and facial expressions
that implied he thought the student's remarks were ridiculous.
Addressing the group as a whole, the professor intoned, "You are going
to be accountable for this!" At one point during the class he said,
"Too little, too late. Blood will be on your hands."
Perhaps more troubling than one professor's abuse of his
position is the way the higher ed media and university officials
responded to the incriminating video. When Campus Reform initially
released three short excerpts from the recording, both the Chronicle
of Higher Education and Higher Ed rushed to defend Schaefer
by claiming the videos were taken out of context and didn't give the
whole picture.
The Chronicle article reports that Schaefer "was
actually challenging all of his students, both liberal and
conservative, he says, and not chastising any of them for their
beliefs." The writer furthermore abets Schaefer's defense that he "put
forth no opinions on how humanity should respond to global warming" —
an assertion revealed as a blatant lie in the complete 40-minute
version of the tape Campus Reform released at the request of the Chronicle.
Likewise, Higher Ed portrays the Campus Reform video as a
"setup" complete with selective editing to portray Schaefer's noble
teaching methodologies as abusive and biased.
In fairness, Schaefer did also mock the "eliminate all
engines" group. "How are you going to feed the people in the cities?"
he yelled, suggesting that engines are still needed to transport the
food and supplies people need to survive. Nonetheless, asserts Ashley
Thorne of the National Association of Scholars (NAS), a professor's job
is "not to belittle" but to "instruct impartially." Thorne wrote on the
NAS website that Schaefer "shouldn't be jeering at students on either
side of a debate he has staged with an invitation to take positions he
believes are extreme. When he asks students to sit according to their
beliefs, then ridicules them for doing so — no matter what their
politics are, he is in the wrong."
LSU physics and astronomy department chairman Michael L.
Cherry defended Schaefer as "an extremely exuberant and enthusiastic
teacher who consistently gets very strong student evaluations." Mr.
Cherry told the Chronicle he did not expect any action to be taken to
against Professor Schaefer, though he would take any student complaints
"very seriously."
Unidentified LSU administrators adopted the media arguments
in their "Setting the Record Straight" statement released several weeks
after the incident. They attempted to discredit the messenger by
accusing Campus Reform of misrepresenting Schaefer "in order to advance
a political agenda" and claimed the group edited out more than 20
minutes of class time to suit their purposes. (Campus Reform explained
their cameraman turned off the tape during the group discussion time
when Schaefer was not lecturing.)
In another attempt to whitewash the situation, LSU Provost
and Executive Vice Chancellor John Maxwell Hamilton told Thorne in an
email that "Not one student who was in the lecture has complained to
the university," when in fact at least one student says he did
complain.
A student identified as Matthew said he did complain to Dr.
Cherry about Schaefer and asked to drop the course. "Even though he
[Dr. Cherry] said he doesn't approve of what he [Professor Schaefer]
did, he [Cherry] said he wouldn't do anything about it. He won't even
let me drop the class." Matthew also said he didn't realize the class
had been recorded, but later learned the cameraman started recording
after Schaefer called Matthew "stupid" for sitting with the "do
nothing" policy group.
Despite 40 minutes of video proving otherwise, Provost
Hamilton assured Thorne, "this is not a case of irresponsible teaching.
It is a case of very bad journalism, obviously by someone without
standards."
(Chronicle of Higher Education, 11-17-10;
InsideHigherEd.com, 11-18-10; nas.org, 12-1-10 and 11-22-10)
P.S. I can't write, but you can take any idea
if it's worthy and call it your own, or do whatever you like with my
permission as long as you correct the mistakes! I'm dyslexic and
mistakes abound, sometimes you'll have to reread to figure out what I
meant to say. I'm doing the best I can as is spell check, but I don't
always see the mistakes even after I've reread the email.
Thank you.
World famous investor Harry Schultz recently
published the last issue of his legendary financial newsletter. After
45 years, the following is how Schultz summed up the economic collapse that we are now facing….
“Roughly speaking, the mess we are in is the worst since
17th century financial collapse. Comparisons with the 1930’s are
ludicrous. We’ve gone far beyond that. And, alas, the courage &
political will to recognize the mess & act wisely to reverse gears,
is absent in U..S. leadership, where the problems were hatched &
where the rot is by far the deepest.”
"... Political Correctness remains just
what it was intended to be: a sophisticated and dangerous form of
censorship and oppression, imposed upon the citizenry with the ultimate
goal of manipulating, brainwashing and destroying our society." --
NewsMax.com
"CONFORMITY IS THE JAILER OF FREEDOM AND THE ENEMY OF GROWTH."
John F. Kennedy
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