Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!linus!philabs!cmcl2!seismo!ll-xn!mit-amt!mit-eddie!thakur From: thakur@mit-eddie.MIT.EDU (Manavendra K. Thakur) Newsgroups: soc.college,talk.rumors Subject: Re: Accuracy in Academia Message-ID: <3352@mit-eddie.MIT.EDU> Date: Tue, 30-Sep-86 16:58:36 EDT Article-I.D.: mit-eddi.3352 Posted: Tue Sep 30 16:58:36 1986 Date-Received: Thu, 2-Oct-86 19:49:58 EDT References: <15485@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU> <15492@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU> Reply-To: thakur@mit-eddie.UUCP (Manavendra K. Thakur) Distribution: na Organization: Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA Lines: 82 Xref: linus soc.college:49 talk.rumors:74 In article <1057@frog.UUCP> john@frog.UUCP (John Woods, Software) writes: > > 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. > 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 You don't have a point. Any course in a foreign language will teach from renowned books in that language. When I took Latin in high school, we read from Caesar and other famous people of Rome. A lot of it was about the military tactics and exploits of Caesar. Does that mean that the teacher was trying to get me to write pro-military papers? I certainly don't think so (even though the teacher was a bit authoritarian). We had interesting discussions in class, and at the end of the year, he asked us as to which texts we liked the best and which the least. Your German professor may have been an avowed Marxist. He may have even "pressured" you to write in favor of Marxism. There are three observations that should be made here: 1) Your professor has a right to be a Marxist. He also has the authority to choose the texts and materials used in his course. So the fact that he chose one of Marx's books does not constitute a violation or abuse of that authority. 2) And even if he did choose Marx's books with an ulterior motive, he certainly didn't penalize you for not writing pro-Marxist papers. How many people in your class do you actually think wrote such papers to get a better grade? Again, he has not abused his position. 3) Finally, let's assume that your professor *did* indeed give better grades to students that wrote pro-Marxist papers. You have several administrative procedures for appeal available to you (especially at MIT). If you seriously believe that your grade suffered, you can appeal. And if you can prove your accusation (the professor is innocent until shown guilty), relief will be granted. Groups like AIA are NOT needed to deal with these problems. That last sentence of mine exlains why I am so critical of AIA. They are simply out to quash any introduction of Marxist or "subversive" ideas. That is not protecting academic freedom, no matter how you look at it. You can be sure that AIA does not try to worry about English classes taught to foreign students that may use texts proclaiming the values of capitalism. They simply try to harass and intimidate professors whose ideas disagree with what AIA thinks is "acceptable." As I said in my last posting, I will not be impressed with AIA until they start looking into right-wing professors that try to make conservative Reaganites out of their students. AIA as an organization is dangerous to the protection of academic freedom. The gains made in academic freedom over the last 25 years must be defended from organizations such as AIA. I hope that those who think AIA is ineffective and unworthy of concern will rethink that position. That AIA has been as unsuccessful that it has been is a sign of healthy watchfulness on the part of the academic community. But the community cannot let its guard down! If we do, the problem may grow until it becomes unmanageable. That is why so much fuss has been (and should continue to be) made over AIA. {allegra,decvax!genrad,seismo}!mit-eddie!thakur thakur@eddie.mit.edu thakur@athena.mit.edu