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Florida "Anti-totalitarian prof" bill


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The end of education

TALLAHASSEE — Republicans on the House Choice and Innovation Committee voted along party lines Tuesday to pass a bill that aims to stamp out “leftist totalitarianism” by “dictator professors” in the classrooms of Florida’s universities.
While promoting the bill Tuesday, Baxley said a university education should be more than “one biased view by the professor, who as a dictator controls the classroom,” as part of “a misuse of their platform to indoctrinate the next generation with their own views.”

The bill sets a statewide standard that students cannot be punished for professing beliefs with which their professors disagree. Professors would also be advised to teach alternative “serious academic theories” that may disagree with their personal views.

According to a legislative staff analysis of the bill, the law would give students who think their beliefs are not being respected legal standing to sue professors and universities.

Students who believe their professor is singling them out for “public ridicule” – for instance, when professors use the Socratic method to force students to explain their theories in class – would also be given the right to sue.

“Some professors say, ‘Evolution is a fact. I don’t want to hear about Intelligent Design (a creationist theory), and if you don’t like it, there’s the door,’” Baxley said, citing one example when he thought a student should sue.

Utterly depressing.

Also,

SciAm

:lol:

Feminism.. the new face of female oppression!

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good lord. All they need is a name like "The Education Freedom Act".

I have been leaning toward engineering, whenever it is that I decide to attend university. I was going to say that I was hopeful that it's one field that's free from political tampering, but I just remembered that a few years back one of the US states legislated that the value of Pi would henceforth be "3".

-kimmy

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According to a legislative staff analysis of the bill, the law would give students who think their beliefs are not being respected legal standing to sue professors and universities.

Right so if a student believes the sun revolves around the earth, or some other kooky and unscientific belief (like, say, "intelligent design") they can sue? What a bunch of malarkey. People have the right to their personal beleifs, no matter how out there thay might be, but when institutions of higher learning are being forced to "respect" suchj outlandish views, that's going too far. This is educational McCarthyism.

America...."the worlds largest, best-armed shopping mall."-Ivor Tossell
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haha what a stupid piece of legislature, besides, if the professors that i did have were all nuts anyhow, i find it intresting that a supposed expert in economics is teaching it instead of going out there and making a bundle of money, he is an expert.......or not. if a professor said something o like "socialism is the greatest idealistic form of government" i wouldnt argue with him, id make sure i put that on the test, and laugh my ass off at him over a few beers afterwards. news flash college professors for THE MOST PART, are to lazy or inept to practice what the preach and they know it.

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haha what a stupid piece of legislature, besides, if the professors that i did have were all nuts anyhow, i find it intresting that a supposed expert in economics is teaching it instead of going out there and making a bundle of money, he is an expert.......or not.

Most professors *do* have serious research to do; teaching undergraduates is a duty (or in some cases just a chore) that they do as part of their obligations to the university.

I'm attending a class this spring. The professor often talks enthusiacally about something that one of his grad-students is researching, or something that they discovered. I get the impression that for some professors, the chance to discover and mentor the most promising undergraduates when they go into graduate studies is a very rewarding part of the job. But I've heard from others that some professors view teaching as just a nuisance, something that takes away from time that they'd rather be using to get their latest research paper published.

-k

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news flash college professors for THE MOST PART, are to lazy or inept to practice what the preach and they know it.

University professors, in general, are paid to sit around and think, theorize, hypothosize and teach some of what they think about regarding a particular subject area. Universities often lead the charge in the kind of change that often has fundamentally taken our society to a new place - economic theories that change how economies operate, medical advancement, approaches to international development etc. Its a terrible think that the study and pursuit of knowledge is so terribly disprected. The proposed legislature is certainly a clear indication of this.

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I find his choice of example to be interesting. The use of a religious-based example is very deliberate. Anyone paying attention to events down south can see the religious right is attempting to whip their followers into a frenzy to put the pressure on Repuiblican lawmakers to start paying back the debt the G.O.P owes. That is manifesting itself in small skirmishes: Terri Schiavo, this, for instance, but the ultimate battle will be fought over Bush's Supreme Court nominees. The extremists want to pack the bench with fellow wing nuts, folks who will overturn the traditional constitutional sepraration of church and state.

Academia is another front in that war. Reason is under attack in the U.S.A. and its fascinating to see far right lawmakers using the progressiv elanguage of tolerance to force institutions to give credence to their loony views. The media today is pandering more and more to the political fundies. There's no way the mainstream press would say to someone like James Dobson "You're a kook." for fear of appearing intolerant and drawing the wrath of the zealots. Now they are setting their sights on education.

America...."the worlds largest, best-armed shopping mall."-Ivor Tossell
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Guest eureka

There are currently 19 American States that are legislating to some degree the teaching of creationism as an alternative theory. I won't say how far it goes since I do not entirely recall the article I read about this.

Kansas is the most extreme.

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There are currently 19 American States that are legislating to some degree the teaching of creationism as an alternative theory. I won't say how far it goes since I do not entirely recall the article I read about this.

Kansas is the most extreme.

I can understand wanting to believe in the mystic, the irrational, and unprovable. I can understand wanting to believe in an afterlife, even with no evidence that it exists.

But I can't understand the situation where people DEMAND that their irrational beliefs be taught as fact. The inability to admit a plurality of views is immature, but how can a state institutionalize this type of immaturity ? Kansas - the state of denial.

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i find it intresting that a supposed expert in economics is teaching it instead of going out there and making a bundle of money, he is an expert.......or not.

You obviously don't understand the discipline of economics very well.

if a professor said something o like "socialism is the greatest idealistic form of government"  i wouldnt argue with him, id make sure i put that on the test, and laugh my ass off at him over a few beers afterwards.

Your attitude is as large, or larger, a threat to education as this bill is.

news flash college professors for THE MOST PART, are to lazy or inept to practice what the preach and they know it.

This is easily the most inane post I have ever seen on any forum. Congratulations! You demonstrate an ignorance of reality that is truly beyond rival.

Feminism.. the new face of female oppression!

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you simply must be a teacher to not face the reality of what most teachers are. failures at whatever field they teach. now i know some enjoy there jobs and do it for the fullfilment of it but to sit there and say i have no concept of reality when my very own teachers have said what i originally posted is no argument just a vain attempt to insult me.

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you simply must be a teacher to not face the reality of what most teachers are. failures at whatever field they teach. now i know some enjoy there jobs and do it for the fullfilment of it but to sit there and say i have no concept of reality when my very own teachers have said what i originally posted is no argument just a vain attempt to insult me.

Some of the mostsucessful people in their field teach and often are recruited by Universities. Get a grip. Einstein, Jane Jacobs; Stephen Hawking; the list is huge.

You insult all teachers when you say they are just recycling failures. I also see a distinction between University Prof and school system teachers. Those who teach in the school system often just love to work with kids and may or may not have an area of expertise (math, art, biology). University professors usually are focused on a particular subject area, excel at it and also teach it while studying or researching at a university. They are required to publish, research, do field work or whatever as part of what they do at the university.

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Guest eureka

I think your posts are sad, moderate. You have no inkling of the education system if you believe what you write. Teachers at all levels are usually dedicated, hard working people. And, at the university level, their lives are all work.

It is fortunate that most of them enjoy what they do and find it rewarding or there would be no educators. Teaching has been categorized as the third most stressful profession. It is the public perception, inspired by political games in both your country and mine, that has reduced the system to the struggling thing it is today.

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you simply must be a teacher to not face the reality of what most teachers are.  failures  at whatever field they teach.

You clearly have no idea what you're talking about here. In most (though not all) disciplines at the university level, professors ARE the field that they teach.

Feminism.. the new face of female oppression!

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you simply must be a teacher to not face the reality of what most teachers are. failures at whatever field they teach. now i know some enjoy there jobs and do it for the fullfilment of it but to sit there and say i have no concept of reality when my very own teachers have said what i originally posted is no argument just a vain attempt to insult me.

Okay I am gonna run this down nice and slowly for you, Teachers who say that are attempting to be humurous. In many cases being a university professor makes you the top of your field. For instnace History, the best you can do in the field of history is be a university professor, if you ahve a P.H.D in history and are not teaching than you are a failure, when your teaching your a success. The same applies for numerous subjects at school, in many cases the best paying Jobs with the best hours and the highest level of prestige are at universities. Maybe with Lawyers, Engineers, Buisness majors, and Accounting majors what you say may have a grain of truth to it, but on the flip side, 90% of courses from anthropology to Zoology the top of your field is at a university.

Damn. That means we're all going to have to share a smaller piece of the Pi  :P

You can fix that by electing Belinda Stronach...

The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren't enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws. - Ayn Rand

---------

http://www.politicalcompass.org/

Economic Left/Right: 4.75

Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -5.54

Last taken: May 23, 2007

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