Their questions to administrators, as well as the stories they posted in real time, focused on calls for public condemnations and demands for the apprehension and severe punishment of the perpetrators. Predictably, in their real-time role play, the student “reporters” assumed that racists were behind the action. In one hypothetical cold case (i.e., they had no advance notice), students get a police report that nooses have just been found hanging from trees all across campus. Readings and discussions covered a wide range, from Supreme Court decisions to current and sometimes sensitive topics. Because many of my students sought careers in journalism, where a thick skin helps, I took a newsroom-like approach to my teaching, challenging incomplete answers and raising tough questions. Proportion and context are buried in a cyber cascade of outrage.Īll of which would give me pause about teaching again (not that anyone is asking). What once was dismissed as just a dumb statement or simple ignorance is now magnified into DEFCON 1 piling on, with escalating demands for the limbs - if not the heads - of the perpetrators. The reason? For using the word ‘ladies’ in an e-mail, he said. Related : A job offer was revoked for this superintendent finalist. Maybe my geezerhood is showing, but what makes “ladies” as a salutation some kind of microaggression? What is different today is not just the extent of campus hypersensitivities but the speed, scope, and ferocity with which offended (justified or not) parties can use social media or other outlets to vent their anger - whether it’s the take-no-prisoners left or the snowflake right that sees books with gender-positive portrayals or strong Black characters as threats to the American way. “We go through these things periodically.” “If you opposed America’s entry into World War I, the president of Columbia would have your desk on the lawn the next day,” notes former Tufts University provost Sol Gittleman, whose book about the history of American higher education comes out this summer (disclosure: I helped edit it). Related : MIT cancels speech by University of Chicago professor following backlashĮven - or especially - at universities, pressure to conform has often prevailed over principle.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |