Is Indoctrination O.K.? – The Chronicle of Higher Education has begun a colloquy (link requires registration, I think) based on the question of whether it is “appropriate for professors to distribute class-discussion guidelines stating that students should acknowledge the role of sexism, racism, and heterosexism in society?” Really. Well, I suppose the fact that there’s at least some disagreement over the propriety of indoctrination is a hopeful sign.
Here’s a taste of the discussion to date — the question followed by a few of the responses (each paragraph is from a different discussant; I omitted their names):
THOUGHT CONTROL?
This past spring, a professor at the University of South Carolina at Columbia was surprised to find herself in a controversy over guidelines she distributed that called for students in her courses to “acknowledge that racism, classism, sexism, heterosexism, and other institutionalized forms of oppression exist” and to “assume that people — both the groups we study and the members of the class — always do the best they can.” The guidelines are widely used in courses in women’s studies, sociology, and some other disciplines, and faculty members who use such guidelines say that they encourage open and full participation by students. But critics say the guidelines amount to inappropriate intimidation of students who may disagree with the professor’s views. Are such guidelines appropriate?
Among the comments so far:
I have chosen not to use them, largely because I feel that a semester is not long enough for a group of often resistant students to do the work that is necessary to struggle together with how to create a truly anti-oppressive classroom environment…. I see this reaction against [the] guidelines as a backlash against the extremely limited/partial efforts made by progressive university educators during the last 30 years. I think that progressive faculty need to look at the larger structures in which the supposedly free classroom is embedded….These institutions are not the allies of social justice.
I understand the desire to create
