Cancelling Dr. Seuss

[Puget]

I haven't seen the book. <snip> Can't remember the title.

What a weird creep. Is there some particular reason we should keep letting this stuff be on here?

Vociferous opposition to meaningful moderation, coupled with very little vocal support for more muscular interventions.

I'm all for it, but I don't want to unilaterally impose standards on a community that doesn't want them. If there's renewed appetite for it, I'd be happy to draw up revised guidelines and put them to you all for feedback, however. I certainly think it'd be an improvement.

I reported the comment because it is completely inappropriate. Although I'm not in favor of strong moderation, I am in favor of rules around personal attacks and blatantly inappropriate content. This crosses a line that I think is worth holding.

[Langue_doc]

I haven't seen the book. <snip> Can't remember the title.

What a weird creep. Is there some particular reason we should keep letting this stuff be on here?

Vociferous opposition to meaningful moderation, coupled with very little vocal support for more muscular interventions.

I'm all for it, but I don't want to unilaterally impose standards on a community that doesn't want them. If there's renewed appetite for it, I'd be happy to draw up revised guidelines and put them to you all for feedback, however. I certainly think it'd be an improvement.

I reported the comment because it is completely inappropriate. Although I'm not in favor of strong moderation, I am in favor of rules around personal attacks and blatantly inappropriate content. This crosses a line that I think is worth holding.

+1 to the bolded.

[marshwiggle]

CHE: 'Campus Reform' and a Clash Over an Assignment on Whiteness at BYU

From the article:

In mid-February, a colleague told Bybee she'd been receiving harassing emails after one of her class assignments was posted online. The assignment, "Revealing Whiteness," asked students to "spend 30 minutes exploring some elements of the physical and social environment at BYU" by photographing "manifestations of 'Whiteness'" on campus.

What would that be? Buildings with white walls? Flowers that have white petals? Cars with white paint? Other than in a fine arts class, it's not clear what the point would be.

Faculty members, meanwhile, are becoming more leery of their course materials being made public, concerned that sharing assignments and readings could lack the kind of context that might be provided in a classroom discussion.

Some are adding statements to their syllabi prohibiting the unauthorized sharing of course materials. At BYU, some professors — particularly those who teach topics like race and gender — are including disclaimers that doing so could lead to consequences under the institution's honor code, Bybee said.

No better way to fuel conspiracy theories than to try to be secretive about everything......

[Wahoo Redux]

CHE: 'Campus Reform' and a Clash Over an Assignment on Whiteness at BYU

From the article:

In mid-February, a colleague told Bybee she'd been receiving harassing emails after one of her class assignments was posted online. The assignment, "Revealing Whiteness," asked students to "spend 30 minutes exploring some elements of the physical and social environment at BYU" by photographing "manifestations of 'Whiteness'" on campus.

What would that be? Buildings with white walls? Flowers that have white petals? Cars with white paint? Other than in a fine arts class, it's not clear what the point would be.

Faculty members, meanwhile, are becoming more leery of their course materials being made public, concerned that sharing assignments and readings could lack the kind of context that might be provided in a classroom discussion.

Some are adding statements to their syllabi prohibiting the unauthorized sharing of course materials. At BYU, some professors — particularly those who teach topics like race and gender — are including disclaimers that doing so could lead to consequences under the institution's honor code, Bybee said.

No better way to fuel conspiracy theories than to try to be secretive about everything......

Oh Marshy...

There is nothing "secretive" about a classroom full of students. 

If you want to know what the prof in question means about "manifestations of whiteness" you have to take the class----mocking it based on the title is juvenile.   

Think before you post, buddy.

[marshwiggle]

If you want to know what the prof in question means about "manifestations of whiteness" you have to take the class----mocking it based on the title is juvenile.   

The title assumes "whiteness" has some deeper meaning other than as a simple definition of an optical property. It would be completely reasonable for a student to implicitly challenge that assertion. (As many have pointed out, even in cultural terms who has qualified as "white" has varied a lot over time and geography, so any assumed definition even in cultural terms is highly idiosyncratic.)

[mahagonny]

CHE: 'Campus Reform' and a Clash Over an Assignment on Whiteness at BYU

From the article:

In mid-February, a colleague told Bybee she'd been receiving harassing emails after one of her class assignments was posted online. The assignment, "Revealing Whiteness," asked students to "spend 30 minutes exploring some elements of the physical and social environment at BYU" by photographing "manifestations of 'Whiteness'" on campus.

What would that be? Buildings with white walls? Flowers that have white petals? Cars with white paint? Other than in a fine arts class, it's not clear what the point would be.

Faculty members, meanwhile, are becoming more leery of their course materials being made public, concerned that sharing assignments and readings could lack the kind of context that might be provided in a classroom discussion.

Some are adding statements to their syllabi prohibiting the unauthorized sharing of course materials. At BYU, some professors — particularly those who teach topics like race and gender — are including disclaimers that doing so could lead to consequences under the institution's honor code, Bybee said.

No better way to fuel conspiracy theories than to try to be secretive about everything......

The AAUP apparently wants us to accept any report of harassment or unwanted messages as an instance of clear harassment. They don't indicate asking for any documentation. I would expect if a lot of professors are being harassed by more conservative students then at least some of this would be getting reported to authorities. Not just by an organization that doesn't like conservatives and reaches out to liberal professors.

https://www.aaup.org/article/data-snapshot-whom-does-campus-reform-target-and-what-are-effects#.Ymgu7C-cZQL

[Anon1787]

Whiteness is a highly problematic social contructivist narrative that is deployed in order to center race and race relations in thinking critically and transgressively about the hegemonic structures of social, economic, and political life in the U.S. across spatial and temporal scales.

Is that highbrow enough?

[Wahoo Redux]

Great! I'll look forward to the threads from you and others about conservative efforts to cancel people, since we both apparently agree that this is not something that is specific to liberals or Democrats. I'd start with the efforts to cancel the 1619 project, then move on to the attacks on Colin Kirkpatrick's right to free expression (and that of other athletes). If you want something more recent, how about calls by people like Moscow Mitch and Rand Paul for boycotts on MLB or Coca Cola. All of these are more chilling of speech than Dr. Seuss deciding not to print a few of their own books, each is deeply inconsistent with conservative "values," and each was actually endorsed by conservative media and/or politicians.

Looking forward to a rousing discussion of the various conservative efforts to cancel speech!

This Professor Officiated at a Gay Wedding. Then He Lost His Job.

Joseph Kuilema was already on thin ice at Calvin University. His public advocacy on LGBTQ+ issues as an assistant professor of social work at Calvin, a private college affiliated with the Christian Reformed Church, had been a source of increasing tension with administrators and trustees. The board, in 2018, had denied Kuilema tenure, citing concerns about his "tone and strategy" on matters related to same-sex marriage.

It was against this backdrop that, in December, Calvin's provost received photos that appeared to show Kuilema officiating at a same-sex wedding. That information set off a chain of events that concluded, on April 18, with the university's decision to not reappoint Kuilema to his untenured faculty position, a move that is likely to end his 14-year career at Calvin.

[Anon1787]

This Professor Officiated at a Gay Wedding. Then He Lost His Job.

Joseph Kuilema was already on thin ice at Calvin University. His public advocacy on LGBTQ+ issues as an assistant professor of social work at Calvin, a private college affiliated with the Christian Reformed Church, had been a source of increasing tension with administrators and trustees. The board, in 2018, had denied Kuilema tenure, citing concerns about his "tone and strategy" on matters related to same-sex marriage.

It was against this backdrop that, in December, Calvin's provost received photos that appeared to show Kuilema officiating at a same-sex wedding. That information set off a chain of events that concluded, on April 18, with the university's decision to not reappoint Kuilema to his untenured faculty position, a move that is likely to end his 14-year career at Calvin.

It's a religious school where it is the norm to have detailed restrictions on speech and behavior. Officiating at a ceremony of holy matrimony against church doctrine seems to be a clear firing offense. Other universities with their own dogmas that want to punish blasphemy, heresy, sacrilege, apostasy, etc. should drop the pretense of not being religious.

[mamselle]

I think I met him briefly, once. He was a kind person.

I can see the problem, though, there are topics like that which I can't discuss with an ordained friend who teaches there, and it's actually surprising he's made it to 14 years, even untenured, given the school's background and mindset.

Fuller, Gordon Conwell, and Emory, among others, will need to address this concern more pastorally and more inclusively, I believe. Many students are more understanding and accepting of difference now. They will seek schools where they, their friends, and those they don't know are treated less judgementally--in fact, they already do.

The overriding and undergirding message of love in the Hebrew and Christian scriptures needs to be considered above, beneath, and around all other messages.

It is possible to love God and others, and not to conform to heteronormativity, or require it of those others (if indeed policing whom and how we love is anyone eles' business where no harms are effected).

M.

[downer]

From what I've seen from a friend's Facebook posts at the situation at Calvin College/University, things are complicated. In some ways it is a school that has intentionally hired progressive faculty and wants to be a good place for diverse students. The student newspaper is clearly very much in favor of gay and lesbian rights. Yet there are many conservatives.

There's considerable push back to the decision from the community.
https://calvinchimes.org/2022/04/21/calvin-denies-reappointment-for-professor-who-officiated-same-sex-marriage/

It is also a school that has a rapidly declining student popuation. So the administration may be trying to play to alumni who would support it in a crisis.

[mamselle]

That could be true.

M.

[Wahoo Redux]

NBC News: 'There's no way to hide history': Teachers react to Georgia law limiting discussion of race

The new law, signed by Gov. Brian Kemp, seeks to prevent "divisive concepts and ideologies from invading the classroom" and removes "obscene materials" from school libraries.

[Wahoo Redux]

NBC News: 'There's no way to hide history': Teachers react to Georgia law limiting discussion of race

The new law, signed by Gov. Brian Kemp, seeks to prevent "divisive concepts and ideologies from invading the classroom" and removes "obscene materials" from school libraries.

The law is part of a growing nationwide campaign to remove books and curricula about race, racism or the contributions of people of color from classrooms. Arkansas, Idaho, Iowa, Florida, New Hampshire and Tennessee are among the states that have passed similar bills, with more than a dozen others with bills or policies moving through state legislatures. As Phyllis Graham, a retired teacher in Augusta, put it, the laws are designed to "not have white kids feel bad about what their great-grandparents did."

"They are thinking nothing of what Black children need to know about history — or even what's happening now in America," she said. "And with the racial divide in America now, they want teachers to be mum in the classroom? To say this bill is about helping is disingenuous."

<snip>

Chris Stewart, the CEO of Brightbeam, a nonprofit network of education influencers, said the Georgia bill indicates that the momentum for this kind of legislation is surging.

"We're in real trouble if we continue to allow the restriction of educators ... and turn a blind eye to it," he said. "You will literally have educators who we entrust to teach kids every day ... There are going to be things that they can't teach. There are going to be books that they can't use. There are going to be movies that they can't show ... They're not just the laws that don't have any real impact. They will have a literal impact on how educated our children — Black, white and brown — will become, from what their teachers can teach them in classrooms."

[marshwiggle]

NBC News: 'There's no way to hide history': Teachers react to Georgia law limiting discussion of race

The new law, signed by Gov. Brian Kemp, seeks to prevent "divisive concepts and ideologies from invading the classroom" and removes "obscene materials" from school libraries.

The law is part of a growing nationwide campaign to remove books and curricula about race, racism or the contributions of people of color from classrooms. Arkansas, Idaho, Iowa, Florida, New Hampshire and Tennessee are among the states that have passed similar bills, with more than a dozen others with bills or policies moving through state legislatures. As Phyllis Graham, a retired teacher in Augusta, put it, the laws are designed to "not have white kids feel bad about what their great-grandparents did."

"They are thinking nothing of what Black children need to know about history — or even what's happening now in America," she said. "And with the racial divide in America now, they want teachers to be mum in the classroom? To say this bill is about helping is disingenuous."

<snip>

Chris Stewart, the CEO of Brightbeam, a nonprofit network of education influencers, said the Georgia bill indicates that the momentum for this kind of legislation is surging.

"We're in real trouble if we continue to allow the restriction of educators ... and turn a blind eye to it," he said. "You will literally have educators who we entrust to teach kids every day ... There are going to be things that they can't teach. There are going to be books that they can't use. There are going to be movies that they can't show ... They're not just the laws that don't have any real impact. They will have a literal impact on how educated our children — Black, white and brown — will become, from what their teachers can teach them in classrooms."

It's kind of a rich irony coming from the same people who want to get rid of statues, rename public monuments, etc. in order to "protect people" from having to see those reminders of history.

Yes, history is messy and uncomfortable if presented in its entirety, whether that's in school or in public reminders of it.