Posted on 12/17/2007 9:03:18 PM PST by jazusamo
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
There is an article in the current issue of The Chronicle of Higher Education -- the trade publication of the academic world -- about professors being physically intimidated by their students.
"Most of us dread physical confrontation," the author says. "And so these aggressive, and even dangerous, students get passed along, learning that intimidation and implied threats will get them what they want in life."
This professor has been advised, at more than one college, not to let students know where he lives, not to give out his home phone number and to keep his home phone number from being listed.
This is a very different academic world from the one in which I began teaching back in 1962. Over the years, I saw it change before my eyes.
During my first year of teaching, at Douglass College in New Jersey, I was one of the few faculty members who did not invite students to his home. In fact, I was asked by a colleague why I didn't.
"My home is a bachelor apartment" I said, "and that is not the place to invite the young women I am teaching."
His response was: "How did you get to be such an old fogy at such a young age?"
How did we get from there to where professors are being advised to not even have their phone numbers listed?
The answer to that question has implications not only for the academic world but for the society at large and for international relations.
It happened because people who ran colleges and universities were too squeamish to use the power they had, and relied instead on clever evasions to avoid confrontations. They were, as the British say, too clever by half.
"Negotiations" and "flexibility" were considered to be the more sophisticated alternative to confrontation.
Most campuses across the country bought that approach -- and it failed repeatedly on campus after campus, when caving in on one set of student demands led only to new and bigger demands.
The academic world has never fully recovered. Many congratulated themselves on the restoration of "peace" on campus in the 1970s. Almost always, it was the peace of surrender.
In order to appease campus radicals, all sorts of new ideologically oriented courses, programs and departments were created, with an emphasis on teaching victimhood and resentments, often hiring people whose scholarly credentials were meager or even non-existent.
Such courses, programs, and departments are still with us in the 21st century -- not because no one recognizes their intellectual deficiencies but because no one dares to try to get rid of them.
One of the rare exceptions to academic cave-ins around the country during the 1960s was the University of Chicago. When students there seized an administration building, dozens of them were suspended or expelled. That put an end to that.
There is not the slightest reason why academic institutions with far more applicants than they can accept have to put up with disruptions, violence or intimidation. Every student they expel can be replaced immediately by someone on the waiting list.
In case of more serious trouble, they can call in the police. President Nathan Pusey of Harvard did that in 1969, when students there seized an administration building and began releasing confidential information from faculty personnel files to the media.
The Harvard faculty were outraged -- at Pusey. To call the cops onto the sacred soil of Harvard Yard was too much.
It just wasn't politically correct. And, as a later president of Harvard, Lawrence Summers, could tell you, being politically correct can be the difference between remaining president of Harvard and having to give up the office.
Authority in general, and physical force in particular, are anathema to many among the intelligentsia, academic or otherwise. They can always think of some "third way" to avoid hard choices, whether on campus, in society, or among nations.
Moreover, they have little or no interest in the actual track record of those third ways. Having to learn to live with intimidation by their own students is one of the consequences.
Thomas Sowell is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institute and author of Basic Economics: A Citizen's Guide to the Economy.
Bravo for TSowell, yet again!
The change seems to be primarily societal, and not exclusive to the educational community.
He always nails it.
“Thomas Sowell” and “common sense” are synonymous.
In the spring of 1968, Communist-led students invaded Columbia's Lowe Library, demanding no new gymnasium, no ROTC, free love, free drugs, surrender to the Soviets in everything—and amnesty for "occupying" the building to begin with.
Meanwhile, the campus athletes disapproved. They marched toward the library, announcing their intention of throwing the long-haired weenies out and restoring order.
The faculty (speaking of former and current Communists) were horrified at the idea—even though it was a library, a seat of learning, which had been commandeered and vandalized. True to Sowell's description of academics as temporizing idiots, Columbia's world-class intellectuals (and they were) encircled the building by holding hands. How sensitive. How . . . pansy.
The athletes were gentlemen. They held back, rather than tossing aside the old fools. The evil radicals stayed for days, and chaos spread from Columbia to the nation.
I heard all this as it happened, broadcast on Columbia's radio station, WKCR-FM. My father was an alum. We were ashamed just hearing about it, because we had some idea what it portended for the country's future. And the "protesters" were such spoiled, pretentious, venal, narcissistic wimps. Instead of young men, they were whiny little boys. Believe me, today's college airheads are no more ignorant or cynical than the student "leaders" of that time.
It seems that I remember some of that incident, it did hit the national news. There was so much anarchy going on on campuses at about that time it was refreshing that someone was willing to stand up to them.
dude, i almost remember the ‘60’s. almost...
Thomas Sowell. A National Treasure.
Yep.
I had a student threaten me. He told me that he would see me dead because he was caught cheating and penalized for it. I told him to calm doan. he told me that he knew where I lived and would be paying me a visit. I replied that he’d better invest in Kevlar because I was a rabid second ammendment fan, and that I’d be expecting him. He said that he’d bring friends. I told him I had a nine shot clip, and several extra ones as well. He left in a huff.
I notified my boss, who sought to expell the miscreant. I told him that that wouldn’t be necessary as the brat was simply full of hot air. Junior never did or said anything amiss for the rest of his time there.
The kid surprisingly DID pass the class, graduate and the last time I heard from him, he was serving in Afghanistan with the USMC.
And I’m sure that the incident you had with him led him to where he is today! Great story.
For all you non Rutgers types, Rutgers is the A&M of New Jersey! The Ag farm is on the east side of town next to the Douglass Campus. Rutgers guys started calling the Douglass Campus the Coop cause that's where all the chickies were!!!
actually he was in the USMC before he was in my class. I foudn out later that had I spoken to his superiors, he’d be in a world of trouble.
I’ve squashed students at times, and sometimes I just didn’t think it was right. The kid who preyed upon female students got nailed good.
I like teaching - it’s fun and you get to meet a lot of cool folks, plus a few (very few, actually) soreheads.
I learned at an early age that the use of physical force - sometimes overwhelming force - is a good thing.
I'm not so sure about this.
Campus faculty won't hesitate to wield their authority against certain things; Lawrence Summers is a case in point.
Todays Academics may tolerate, or cower from campus anarchy, but they'll crush any offender within their realm of influence. They control kids' futures.
Thanks for relating that, I’m glad it turned out okay.
I was surprised - pleasantly so, btu then again this isn’t the first time I refused to back down, and sunsequently became friends with people like this - I know what it is like to become frustrated.
Yes, but it seems those on the left (which are the majority) are very much more tolerant of those with their own ideology.
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