Posted on 12/08/2004 8:39:56 AM PST by dalereed
The coming class of vets and academia A few nights ago I got home after teaching a late evening class, threw my books in a pile on the couch, poured myself a drink and turned on the late news. I just caught the end of a brief reference to the return of a handful of Marines from Iraq, being confronted by a small but vocal group of protesters. Apparently, the encounter was peaceful and polite. Because the incident brought back more than a few memories (and perhaps because the wine was particularly good), I feel compelled to write.
Sooner, perhaps, than I and my academic colleagues are ready, we may be faced with an issue academia has not really faced in a generation: large numbers of young veterans enrolling in our classes, beginning new lives and new careers.
Having stood where they shall stand, I hope I can help my colleagues understand what they shall face and how they will behave.
They shall face, as I did, professors who will inform them on the first day of class that they may as well drop out now because anyone too stupid to avoid military service is, obviously, too stupid to pass the course work.
Many will respond by scoring 100 percent on every test you give them, getting their A's not because you "give" them A's but because they "take" those A's by brute intellectual force, driving themselves with a self-discipline few who have never served in a combat zone can imagine.
These young people have worked 50-and 60-hour days in unbearable heat for months on end, performing exacting but mind-numbing tasks upon which, literally, the lives of other people depend. They shall not be overwhelmed by your reading lists. Like all veterans, they know that the rest of their life is a gift.
They shall be called, as I was called, names like fascist, rapist and baby killer by faculty and students alike, often in class and to their face. But they have had worse things thrown at them. They've been trained to stand their ground under fire. More important, they know the truth; they know that they built clinics and schools and gave first aid to children shot, burned, cut and blown up by an enemy who indiscriminately destroys anyone who appears to be friendly to Americans – even small children.
It is easy to sit here in America watching CBS or CNN, believing you "know" what all those young people are doing. I am often amused to see professors who regularly rant about the unreality of TV, falling into the very foolishness they condemn.
The veterans shall be used as pawns in games of political propaganda by professors trying to make political statements. But these young veterans have, unfortunately, been used on occasion by foolish and inept officers who see their own military "exploits" not as something contributing to national security but as some kind of political currency to be traded later for votes. These young vets know a jerk when they see one. They know how to protect themselves.
Be warned. Often they will be smarter than their professors – no, not better educated or more well read – but wiser, faster. Many of them are going to graduate with honors – magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa – and then they are coming after the professors, coming to take their jobs, where they know that someday they can make a difference in how this nation treats its young veterans.
I don't care how my colleagues feel about the war or about them personally; they don't care either. My simple request is that they be treated fairly, given the chance they have earned and the grades they deserve. Don't make them fight a second war against intolerance and bigotry here in their own country.
As for me, I will embrace them as comrades.
BERT DILL Department of Rhetoric and Writing Studies San Diego State University
This should be sent to every single college professor in the country!
After reading this, I am sorry that I have chosen this year to retire from the ranks of academia.
If I could stay, I would welcome our veterans with open arms.
So, liberal profs - get ready cuz they be comin' yer way.
By the time these veterans have a chance to earn Ph.D.'s, a lot of the leftists hired in the '60s and early '70s will be retiring. The question then will be whether an outstanding candidate whose outlook has been partly shaped by his experiences in Afghanistan or Iraq will have a chance of getting hired...that will depend on departmental hiring committees and whether they will require ideological conformity.
If only there were more like him! I don't think that campus life should be dominated by either liberal or conservative schools of thought...let all sides be heard! One of the things I have heard most about acquiring a college education is that you are also supposed to gain critical thinking skills. How are you supposed to do that when you are being spoonfed dogma? Let's get more guys like this on campus!
Maybe then I would feel comfortable going to college. *grin*
It ought to be really interesting when these folks get back. I hope it's the miserable whiners and deserters who are shamed this time.
This is a chance for the veterans to change academia by challenging its facts and its biases.
All a professor can do is give a bad grade, but what's that compared to facing sniper fire.
My nephew may ending up taking some courses ...at least now I can advise him on one prof worth taking a class with.
Great read!
Semper Fi
"One of the things I have heard most about acquiring a college education is that you are also supposed to gain critical thinking skills"
One of the only professors I had that I really had respect for was a physics prof that always had open book exams with tests so long that no one could possibly finish and said that there was only one reason to be in college was to learn how to think.
His attitude was that if you hadn't learned the basics and how to apply them all the books in the world wouldn't help you in the exam.
Can some one explain "worked 50-and 60-hour days"???
"Can some one explain "worked 50-and 60-hour days"???"
I'm sure it was just a small brain fart and it should be week instead of days.
I worked 70+/week for 40 years running a construction business.
Sounds like my kind of guy...too bad I am too stupid for physics, LOL!
"too bad I am too stupid for physics"
No one is too stupid for physics if they put their mind to it and learned the basics especially in math, of course it helps to work at learning from the time you start school.
The biggest problem in the last 30+ years is the schools pass students on instead of failing them when they should have been and repeat a grade. By doing that they have doomed the student to continued failure because they will never understand whats happening at the next level, especially in the math and siences.
Thankfully I not only had a good education from home and breezed through school but it was at a time before they had invented shrinks and the word esteem wasn't part of the language!
Well I remember the end of hazing when I started in 1946. Some young upper classman treatened to paddle a GI freshman because he refused the wear a beanie. Hazing ended when the GI said 'If you hit me with that f'ing paddle, I'll break it over your f'ing head'. Yes, The returning military will make a difference.
Back in my senior year in engineering school (NCSU, Class of '81), I took a few b.s. liberal arts classes just to meet the minimal hours taken. I didn't matter much whether I aced them or not, as long as I passed for graduation.
Well, one of the classes was "Peace and War in the Nuclear Age", taught by an ever-so-liberal touchy-feely professor. He would set up role-playing exercises where we would act as world leaders and "work together to resolve international issues and promote global harmony". Except I didn't play the game that way.
No, friends and neighbors, I deliberately went out of my way to get in touch with my inner barbarian. My mantra became "Over the Pole". When an enemy country threatened economic sanctions, I would nuke them, jump up and down on the rubble, then turn to the remaining leaders and ask "Who's next?". By the end of the scenario, I ruled by fiat and the professor hated my guts.
Well, when the time came for semester's end, he gave me a "C" for the class since he couldn't fail me and because I took great care to do all the class work and homework). At our final "counseling session", I just smiled when he asked me if I had any questions or complaints about my grades. "Nope", I answered, "just as long as I passed and get my diploma."
As I started out his office door, however, I turned and said "By the way, I accepted a job offer yesterday from Newport News Shipbuilding. I'm going to work reactor overhaul on nuclear missile submarines with a guaranteed salary greater than yours in two years. Have a nice day!"
I won't repeat his response, except that it was suitable for Democratic Underground.
And that, friends and neighbors, is how I became the arrogant cocksure conservative bane of liberals I am today.
:-)
A college prof at Mesa College when I was fresh from 8 yrs.
active duty as a Medic. Said in his College English class
that "Vietnam didn't mean nothing. Because We lost." Eight of us walked out as he was speaking to engage debate--he
simply never got over the sixties anti-war movement.
I took care of too many with parts they left in that small
corner to agree with armchair socialists too cowardly to
serve in the uniform of our Country. Thank You Mr.dalereed
for your service to our country--Welcome Home.
:-)
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