Posted on 09/15/2005 6:28:09 PM PDT by wagglebee
George Washington University has chosen not to renew the contract of a professor of sexuality who taught everything from condom use to self breast exams – in effect firing the popular teacher.
Adjunct professor Michael Schaffer taught packed classrooms of interested college students for 17 years at the university, reported the Web-based Inside Higher Ed.
Schaffer told the site he was given no explanation for the decision and that when he pressed Patricia Sullivan, the acting chair of the Department of Exercise Science, for answers, she told him: "Maybe you need to look at your student evaluations."
Two of those evaluations came from female students who claimed Schaffer was guilty of sexual harrassment for the way he taught his class. Threatening to file a sexual-harrassment lawsuit, one of the women complained, among other things, about the way he led a discussion on whether or not people should shave their pubic hair in preparation for oral sex.
Responded Schaffer: "I talked about men and women [during the shaving lecture]. That's a question people ask."
One of the evaluations, provided to independent school newspaper the Hatchet, said Schaffer "does not teach, but reads extremely sexual student responses (to take-home papers), repeatedly hands out condoms, (and) shows naked pictures and videos."
The class also included the showing of a video of a male and female masturbating, the paper reported.
Schaffer claims he has always been proud of his class, with two sessions of 75 students each filling up quickly each semester. According to Inside Higher Ed, a stack of evaluations Schaffer has saved are full of phrases like: "open and understanding," "covers real issues," "he incorporates humor into serious subject matter," "environment for self-discovery."
The professor told the student paper he was "blown away" by the critical evaluations, saying he is always honest and forthright with his students.
"I will respond to any question," he is quoted as saying. "We can and did talk about anything."
Though the university reportedly is taking the School of Health in a more research-focused direction, it still is offering a course in human sexuality, taught by a different professor.
Some of Schaffer's students are eager to see him reinstated, saying he has done an excellent job.
"One of my good friends found a symptom for testicular cancer only because he learned how to search for it during one of professor Schaffer's lectures," Dave Frenkil, a senior who took the class two years ago, told the education website. "He then asked professor Schaffer who to contact and had the issue dealt with immediately."
Another former student, Andrea Mandell, wrote to Sullivan on behalf of the sex prof: "While [Schaffer's] open attitude toward discussing sexuality may come off as 'jarring' ... I found it to be equally, if not more so, healthy. During the class females learned to speak up in the bedroom, about everything from use of condoms to being comfortable expressing herself, and protecting herself against disease."
Yet another student said Schaffer dealt with sexuality "with respect and dignity."
A female alumnus wrote to Sullivan: "As a female, it never crossed my mind to feel uncomfortable around professor Schaffer. I would often stay after class to ask personal questions."
A senior female student said the pubic hair discussion was not out of bounds: "If you're offended, why take the class? It definitely isn't a requirement."
Insider Higher Ed included responses from readers about the controversy.
"Good morning, George Washington University," wrote someome calling himself Dr. Emmett Brown, the scientist from the "Back to the Future" films. "Just in case you hadn't noticed, the year is 2005, not 1955."
Another reader accused GWU of appealing to the lowest common denominator – "i.e., the most sexually phobic students in the course."
A poster named "Cicero" criticized the school for offering the class in the first place:
"Do we really need a class on shaving our naughties when we are producing supposedly educated students with no grasp of, say, evolutionary theory or Hamlet or modern languages or European history? They shouldn’t have fired an apparently devoted instructor; they should have eliminated the class and given him a more appropriate assignment for an institution of learning."
Yet another reader blamed the action on the "conservative/moral 'revolution' in academia," saying such "academic prudes" are "throwbacks to a 1950s-era cultural myopia that sees only a very narrow range of intellectual and moral choices available to us, and [they] like it that way."
THE WHAT?!
Moral absolutes ping.
"Just in case you hadn't noticed, the year is 2005, not 1955."
Who cares. This nonsense needs to stop and stop NOW. Just because another year has passed doesn't mean we're supposed to be more immoral to meet the wishes of the immoral. And how this mindset was ever allowed to control anything is beyond me. It's beyond time to take this nonsense to task and correct it. And getting rid of this morally questionable nonsense is a good start.
That was my favorite course I liked the video on self examination the best !
Moral Absolutes Ping.
It's not morally questionable. The question has been asked, and the answer is "no".
Moral relativity is not relative at all. Moral rectitude is scorned, is actually "bad". Immorality is honored, has the pride of place, is actually "good". It's just inversion - black is white, white is black. Day is night, night is day.
This article should engender a seed of doubt in the minds of parents - do you want your child to go to college and take a class like this? And many, many universities, both state and private, offer stuff that's much, MUCH worse than this.
Freepmail me if you want on/off this pinglist.
Note: Moral rot will kill us as a nation and a culture faster and more thoroughly than Islamic jihadis any day of the week. The speed of the slippery slide is increasing. Each one of us who sees this should at the very least speak out to those we come in contact with. Each should do whatever we can - truth is light, ignorance is darkness. The more people hear the truth, the more they recognize it.
The truth is that sexuality is like fire. Just as fire can cook, and keep us warm, or burn down the house and incinerate whole neighborhoods or forest; sex can help a husband and wife bond and form a family, create children - or it can destroy lives wholesale. Just as fire needs boundaries and safeguards, so does sex. Without those boundaries, we've got what is akin to dangerous wildfires.
Homework was a lot of fun.....but study group was AWESOME!!!!
Far more likely that it was a couple of Andrea Dworkin's disciples - anti-sex feminists - doing the complaining.
ROFLMAO!!!
Seriously, that dude's got some massive truth decay.
There is no "conservative/moral revolution" in academia, especially. If that were true, then such moral decay wouldn't have happened--even at a notoriously liberal place like GWU.
And, if such a revolution was taking place, then why are 90+5 of professors flaming Liberals? Why are there still strong Liberal groups on campus? Why are universities still more or less advanced Socialist indoctrination camps?
Yes, conservative and religious groups may be gaining steam, but sadly, they're still in the minority.
It also isn't a throwback to the fifties; it's a renaissance of traditional mores, values and ethics that have existed since the dawn of civilized man. It's the driving away of the moral bankruptcy that has eaten away our nation and our society for the last few decades.
But since such mores, values and ethics have been nonexistent for as long as my peers and I can remember, is it any wonder that my generation actually thinks this?
Are American colleges vicious and active purveyors of filth like Socialism and free sex? Is the sky blue and the grass green?
It should be crystal clear--and GWU is but one "sore thumb" example. The whole system needs to be completely gutted and rebuilt solidly on traditional mores, values, and ethics. And the best way to do this is to keep plugging away. How can we do this, you might ask?
It's simple. We all have to come together. By sponsoring groups in and near college towns that gives conservative students not just an outlet, but a chance to impact the community at large, can we all work to chip the Liberal chokehold on academia.
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