As the political climate continues to polarize in this country, I become more and more concerned about my position in the Academy. As an untenured instructor, how much freedom do I have in the classroom? I am a teacher of Writing, Rhetoric, and English literature. My classes inevitably get into political language whenever the topic of rhetoric comes up. It's often unavoidable because the students themselves bring it up. I'm usually careful to avoid bringing my own lefty views into plain sight, and try to show the abusive uses of language in political language in general. But will I always be perceived with such generosity by my students? Several recent cases make me think that I such generosity may not always be given.
Follow me over the fold as I consider the ramifications of students having the right to record the political and religious speech of their professors.
When I first read the following story, I was appalled. Here's the text:
Last fall, Matthew, 16, taped the teacher, David Paszkiewicz, telling students in a history class that if they do not believe that Jesus died for their sins, they "belong in hell."
On the recordings, which Matthew made surreptitiously starting in September, Mr. Paszkiewicz is heard telling the class that there were dinosaurs aboard Noah’s ark and that there is no scientific basis for evolution or the Big Bang theory of the origin of the universe.
Since Matthew turned over the tapes to school officials, his family and supporters said, he has been the target of harassment and a death threat from fellow students and "retaliation" by school officials who have treated him, not the teacher, as the problem. The retaliation, they say, includes the district’s policy banning students from recording what is said in class without a teacher’s permission and officials’ refusal to punish students who have harassed Matthew.
For another New York Times story on this issue, go here. It seems to me like this is a clear cut case of the teacher abusing his position, but the school officials are treating it as anything but. However, this raises some really thorny issues concerning students' rights and academic freedom.
I can make the overly hasty generalization that a lot of Daily Kos readers will believe that this student is courageous, did the right thing, and is being wrongly abused because of his actions. I think that many people here will also believe the teacher should either be fired or at least severely disciplined. These are my views on the matter at least, but I am conscious that this is my view from the left side of the fence.
When I first read the following story, I was appalled. Here's the text:
Last fall, Matthew, 16, taped the teacher, David Paszkiewicz, telling students in a history class that if they do not believe that Jesus died for their sins, they "belong in hell."
On the recordings, which Matthew made surreptitiously starting in September, Mr. Paszkiewicz is heard telling the class that there were dinosaurs aboard Noah’s ark and that there is no scientific basis for evolution or the Big Bang theory of the origin of the universe.
Since Matthew turned over the tapes to school officials, his family and supporters said, he has been the target of harassment and a death threat from fellow students and "retaliation" by school officials who have treated him, not the teacher, as the problem. The retaliation, they say, includes the district’s policy banning students from recording what is said in class without a teacher’s permission and officials’ refusal to punish students who have harassed Matthew.
For another New York Times story on this issue, go here. It seems to me like this is a clear cut case of the teacher abusing his position, but the school officials are treating it as anything but. However, this raises some really thorny issues concerning students' rights and academic freedom.
There have been other issues of students recording professors and teachers at the university and secondary education levels. Another famous one is the case of Jay Bennish. Here's an excerpt from an excellent piece from the Guardian:
Meanwhile, in January in Aurora, Colorado, social studies teacher Jay Bennish answered questions in his world geography class about President George Bush's speech from his students at Overland High School. Caricaturing Bush's speech, Bennish said, "'It's our duty as Americans to use the military to go out into the world and make the world like us.'" He then continued: "Sounds a lot like the things Adolf Hitler used to say: 'We're the only ones who are right, everyone else is backwards and it's our job to conquer the world and make sure they all live just like we want them to.' Now I'm not saying that Bush and Hitler are exactly the same. Obviously they're not, OK? But there are some eerie similarities to the tones they use."
Unbeknown to him, one 16-year-old student, Sean Allen, recorded part of the class on his MP3 player. When his Republican father heard it he was so incensed that he shopped it around to local conservative radio stations, where it finally found a home with radio talk-show host Mike Rosen.
Later in Bennish's class, the teacher had told his students, "I am not in any way implying that you should agree with me. I don't even know if I'm necessarily taking a position. But what I'm trying to get you to do is to think, all right, about these issues more in depth, and not just take things from the surface. And I'm glad you asked all your questions because they're all very good, legitimate questions." Rosen only played the first part of the tape on his programme. He also put it on the internet.
Now, it also seems clear to me that Bennish may have stepped over the line here and pushed his own political agenda. There's a way to analyze Bush's rhetoric without necessarily going to the Hitler analogy. (As a side point, the Hitler analogy should be retired for a while. It never serves to make a good point anymore because it's too incendiary.) From the right side of the fence, Sean Allen can also be seen to be courageous. So much so that the chief education cultural warrior David Horowitz felt it earned him his own award:
The press conference also included the presentation of the "Sean Allen Award" by David Horowitz to Colorado high school student Sean Allen whose recording of an illiterate political rant by his geography teacher, Jay Bennish, created a national furor over classroom indoctrination. The "Sean Allen Award" and will be presented annually to a student who displays great courage as Sean did in combating classroom indoctrination and standing up for academic freedom.
So, what's the problem so far? Both cases can be reasonably read as teachers overstepping their boundaries (although in my case I think the teacher telling students they're going to burn is more egregious than Bennish's errors, and I do believe that Bennish has been lynched more or less by the media and conservative machine), but these cases set precedents for abuses of students' assertions of their rights.
The Guardian piece I quoted from above makes the insightful point that some of these cases are pointing to a more organized attack on liberal academe:
Either way, a growing number of apparently isolated incidents suggests a mood which is, if nothing else, determined, relentless and aimed openly at progressives in academe.
Earlier this year, Fox news commentator Sean Hannity urged students to record "leftwing propaganda" by professors so he could broadcast it on his show. On the web there is Campus Watch, "monitoring Middle East studies on campus"; Edwatch, "Education for a free nation"; and Parents Against Bad Books in School.
In mid January, the Bruin Alumni association offered students $100 to tape leftwing professors at the University of California Los Angeles. The association effectively had one dedicated member, 24-year-old Republican Andrew Jones. It also had one dedicated aim: "Exposing UCLA's most radical professors" who "[proselytise] their extreme views in the classroom".
Sean Hannity asking people to record their teachers so he can play it on air, or various websites offering to do similar things or even give rewards all encourage a persecution culture within the classroom.
So, here's my questions: What are the teachers' rights with regard to academic freedom when it comes to religion and politics? Do students have the right to be "whistle blowers" and record (in some fashion) their teachers' abuses? Does such recording constitute a violation of Academic freedom?
At least in the case of Matthew LaClair, I think he did the right thing. But if we permit him to do it, then don't we open the door for disgruntled College Republicans to use purposeful and selective editing of otherwise even-keeled professors as a weapon against progressives? (Not to mention the occasional looney on the left side that shouldn't be teaching, but is made into a poster-child for the Left even though most of us would shun them.)
As an Academic myself, I'm a staunch reporter of Academic Freedom. But I don't think that gives me the right to tell, say, my religious students that they're delusional idiots. And though I'm not an advocate of completely de-centered classrooms where pedagogy is student-led, creating a consumer environment, I do believe that students have the right to protest obvious transgressions. But who decides what is justifiable protest and what is partisan agitation on either side?
If this went to the legislatures, State or Federal, I'd fear that Academic Freedom would become so denuded that teachers would hardly be able to say anything in their own classrooms. ilona's excellent diary on the a proposed law in Arizona could speak to the future of Academic Freedom. This law would effectively ban political opinion in the classroom. I think it would sound like a good idea to many partisan politicians, and they either would not understand or would desire the far-reaching implications of such a law.
I invite better minds than I to discuss this issue. How do we protect students' rights without abrogating Academic Freedom?
Update: I found this link that I thought I'd post:
As a school law guy, I’ve been following this incident with great interest. Here are some thoughts that have been running through my head...
1. The United States Supreme Court famously said in Tinker v. Des Moines (1969) that "state-operated schools may not be enclaves of totalitarianism. School officials do not possess absolute authority over their students. Students in school as well as out of school are ‘persons’ under our Constitution. They are possessed of fundamental rights which the State must respect, just as they themselves must respect their obligations to the State."