Classroom
bias - an exposé
For most students, college is a place where
they go to further goals in achieving their
career of choice and to decide what it is
that they want to do with the rest of their
lives. For many, it is a place where one
figures out who one is and what it is, exactly,
that one believes in. College is not a place
for teachers to indoctrinate or proselytize
their audience, the students, with their
own personal beliefs and agendas.
Some time ago, Jason Garthoffner, a friend
of mine who writes for the Union, brought
a Website to my attention. This Website,
www.noindoctrination.org, is a resource
that allows students to anonymously post
about teachers that they find to be biased
in lectures and readings, along with a rating
of the degree of bias ranging from “noticeable”
to “excessive.” Some of the accounts of
bias I am about to describe are not only
appalling but should not be occurring at
any institution of higher learning, in any
degree. I do this not only as a public service,
but also to inform you, the college student,
of the frequent basis on which this occurs.
In the interest of fairness, I will leave
the names of teachers that were accused
of bias out of this article, however, those
names can be seen on the aforementioned
Website.
Let us start our educational bias exposé
right down the road, at Long Beach City
College, where one student was brave enough
to post an account of his experience in
a certain anthropology course taught
by a teacher who just happened to be the
department head. The teacher, the student
claims, “uses his anthropology class as
a forum for his excessively socialistic/political
views.” The student also recalls how the
teacher referred to the government as “nothing
more than a giant war monger,” democracy
as “nothing more than a disguise for colonialism,”
and amazingly, women as being “too lazy
to breast feed.” The teacher, who posted
a rebuttal to these allegations, began by
saying this callous and unbelievable comment:
“I sometimes get such glib, knee-jerk patriotic
‘you hurt my feelings’ reactions to my lectures.”
One would think the department head would
be better composed.
Our lecture bias journey continues with
a posting regarding a teacher from Minneapolis
Community and Technical College, in a course
entitled “American Minority Relations,”
a necessary class for prospective police
officers in the state. This particular teacher,
the student notes, “created an environment
that was hostile towards heterosexual white
men,” and said that she wanted to change
the course title to “American Minority Oppression.”
Astonishingly, this teacher declared “that
she makes copies of the papers of ‘questionable
students’ in order to testify against them
if they are ever accused of shooting or
harassing a minority.” The last time I checked
this was called blackmail. The student goes
on to note that white males in the class
were often referred to as “typical white
guys,” “hopeless white guys,” and “f—ing
white guys.” At least some justice was served:
this particular teacher was not scheduled
to be teaching there in the Spring 2003
semester. At the end of the post, though,
the student wonders, “Where will this woman
go next?” Hopefully, for our sake, into
retirement.
One of the most atrocious bias reports comes
from a course called “Art and Archaeology
of Ancient America,” taught at the University
of Maryland, College Park. The student remembered
this teacher, a terrorist sympathizer, “pretending
to strap a bomb to himself, sitting down
next to a student, and saying something
to the effect of, ‘If you try to get rid
of us, we’ll take you with us.’” Wow.
I hope this has opened eyes and made people
realize the amount of bias that occurs so
frequently at colleges and universities.
Bias should not be tolerated in any classroom
and if you feel you have been a victim of
this, I encourage you to report it on www.noindoctrination.org.
Doing this will not only help to halt this
extremely unprofessional practice, but will
hopefully encourage other students to follow
suit.
Gerry Wachovsk is a journalism major at
Cal State Long Beach. He can be reached
by e-mail at SenorBucho@aol.com.
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