Posted on 06/01/2021 4:30:10 PM PDT by vis a vis
What would you give to have a college professor begin a course in the following way:
Welcome to Political Science 101.
You may have heard I do things a bit differently from your other professors, but you should know that my way was the “normal” way till … around five years ago. I’ve simply returned this course to “normal,” as opposed to the “new normal” — that is not lightyears close to “normal.”
You will first notice that a return to “normal” connotes a return to meritocracy. In this world, grades (regardless of one’s race, ethnicity, gender, national origin or ideology) count, as do attendance and preparation. Your parents pay $50,000 a year for you to attend this institution. The very least they — let alone prospective employers — expect from a graduate is a reasonably educated person with the maturity and skills to think critically.
(Excerpt) Read more at westernjournal.com ...
I’ve been reading the letters of Thomas Jefferson. I’m thinking that if I ever taught a course, any course, any subject, I would spend the first 10 minutes of each class reading letters from TJ.
Of course I would probably get fired for my white supremacy, but oh well.
That's 180 degrees opposite of what they're trying to instill in students these days. To the left, if you fail it's always someone else's fault, not yours. That goes double if they're a minority student.
Or any founding father or Winston Churchill or my grandfather. So much wisdom and common sense lost.
I liked it.
Thanks for posting it.
Welcome to political science 101 (or any class for that matter).
I will be conducting this class along the lines of whiteness as defined by the AA Smithsonian Museum.
For the white kids in class you are expected to be here on time, be prepared for exams, write a paper using proper grammar and syntax. You will be held accountable for your work.
If you're black, none of this applies to you because the AA Smithsonian Museum doesn't think you're capable of these things.
It'd take about a day or two for the lesson to sink in.
bkmk
What they don’t know they can’t teach!
8-)
Lovely way to say the truth...I’ll have to use it.....
During my 15 years of teaching undergraduate micro and macro economics, I always prefaced my first class with similar words. I emphasized that I expected critical thinking and an honest look at the facts. Whenever I expressed my own opinion, I would notify students by flipping my tie as a cue that this was the old professor’s opinion. Though I exposed my students to conservative opinions in my discussion forums (Walter E. Williams columns were a favorite) it would be unethical to force my opinions or points of view on my students. My classes were popular and most of my students said they learned a lot and saw points of view they hadn’t thought of before.
I had targeted a career in the sciences and my path started in the Arts and Science college. It doesn't matter if your aspirations are physics or social worker, freshman and a good part of the sophomore years are spent on a common core of requirements and electives.
So, I found myself as a freshman taking political science and Spanish classes. Political science was an easy A and I frankly didn't ouch much effort into it. I chose Spanish as I grew up speaking it as a toddler in Santa Fe and was completely bilingual when the family moved to OK in 2nd grade. I was no longer a Spanish speaker by college though due to lack of use.
The Spanish course took a lot of work due to all of the memorization required. Pronunciation and flow of the words were natural still but I just didn't know what the words meant. The Spanish prof pulled me aside after class and said I was doing well and asked where I knew Spanish from. I told her Santa Fe and it turned out she was from there as well and it was my accent that caught her attention.
Roll to the end of the semester…. The poly science prof asked me to meet at his office for a discussion and we set a time. I arrived and both the poly science and Spanish profs were there. They offered to put me in a scholarship program that would essentially be a full ride and include a year abroad at a university in Mexico to polish up my Spanish and get another perspective into political science
I turned down the offer as my aspirations were in a totally different direction. Some years later, I was thinking about how my paths would have been different if I had gone with that scholarship offer. Best that I could come up with was working for a federal 3-letter agency.
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