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From: john@frog.UUCP (John Woods, Software)
Newsgroups: soc.college,talk.rumors
Subject: Re: Accuracy in Academia
Message-ID: <1057@frog.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 29-Sep-86 11:47:54 EDT
Article-I.D.: frog.1057
Posted: Mon Sep 29 11:47:54 1986
Date-Received: Tue, 30-Sep-86 21:49:42 EDT
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Xref: linus soc.college:43 talk.rumors:70

> And why is it "disinformation" to ask students to think for themselves,
> to invite them to go to whatever sources they like and make whatever
> case they choose on the given topics?  They could come to the conclusion
> that the Marxist state is even more repressive than the Catholic Church,
> or that modern land practices in Guatemala and Hondouras are very unlike
> the European serfdom.  
> 
It isn't disinformation to ask students to think for themselves, but are you
sure that this TA would consider that the conclusions listed are defensible
(i.e., correct in his/her own mind?).

I have sort of a similar story.  At MIT, I took German from a teacher who was
a Marxist (not "accused of being a Marxist", but that is his public opinion).
One of the reading assignments we had was parts of Das Kapital (or possibly
the Manifesto, I am no longer quite sure)  -- despite the fact that the German
in it was rather broken, due to Marx writing it right after living in London
for several years, speaking English (this, again, is not my own opinion, but
was stated by the teacher before the assignment was given).  He felt it was
important enough as a piece of German writing rather than for the pedagogical
value (despite the fact that this was nominally a course in learning to read,
write, and speak German fluently).  Fortunately, he was openminded about
hearing criticism of the quality of the writing, and did NOT ask us to write
(in German, of course :-) long defenses (or criticisms) of the content.

He was disappointed, but fortunately not angry, when I opined that I liked
Freud's writing (which was also assigned) VASTLY more than Marx (the two
assignments were contiguous).  Freud's writing, whether or not one agrees with
his conclusions, was (in my opinion) BEAUTIFULLY, WONDERFULLY lucid and clear.
He was an excellent writer!

The point?  I'm not sure I have one.  I suppose it is, some instructors do
push their political viewpoints into their course material, to the detriment
of the course, but not all of these force their students to agree with their
viewpoints.  Nevertheless, when they do this, there is a DISTINCT but subtle
pressure to adopt the viewpoint that might improve your grade by making the
instructor more sympathetic.


--
John Woods, Charles River Data Systems, Framingham MA, (617) 626-1101
...!decvax!frog!john, ...!mit-eddie!jfw, jfw%mit-ccc@MIT-XX.ARPA

"Don't give me this intelligent life crap,
just find me a planet I can blow up."