The author is not sympathetic to our cause, but doesn’t deny the momentum. I’m particularly amused by this:
If the bill in Texas becomes law, some professors there have said they plan to include a clause in syllabi stipulating that students are not be permitted to carry guns into their classroom — and then simply refuse to teach classes where students don’t assent.
There is also a bill to permit open-carry pending in the legislature, but if that doesn’t pass, how are you going to know? I seriously don’t think these folks consider they run into people carrying every day and never realize it. Back to the writer:
When you think of it like that: giving guns to young students largely interested in sex and booze, I’d wager it seems less of a genius idea.
Who’s talking about giving guns to young students? No one is giving away guns here. We’re talking about people who have licenses to carry everywhere else in public. It’s amazing to me how well our opponents frame their rhetoric. They speak of us as being fear mongers, but the truth is they are the greatest fear mongers of all, buy planting thoughts in the public mind that evoke images of Wayne LaPierre handing out Glocks as kids go into the lecture hall. This is ludicrous. It’s almost amazing this is even an issue given the very small number of people who are ever going to be toting guns to class.
“and then simply refuse to teach classes where students don’t assent.”
Once again, teachers/unions putting politics above and beyond their hired purpose – to teach.
Since graduation, every year I have lost respect for tenured college teachers. Most of them just seem to be in academia so they can hide from the responsibility and accountability of the real world. I’ve come to see most tenured teachers as paper experts who have little to no practical experience and tons of rather useless theoretical knowledge.
There people live and work in a fantasy land where unicorn poop gold and rainbows.
“There people live and work in a fantasy land where unicorn poop gold and rainbows”
Proof reading failed on that one:
They’re people live and work in a fantasy land where unicorns poop gold and rainbows.
” — and then simply refuse to teach classes where students don’t assent.”
Good. If they’re too stupid to look at the history of CHL holders in Texas and the nation as a whole to realize how much safer they’d be with a class full of “hicks carrying guns”, then they are way too stupid to be teaching anyone else anything.
Too many people who work in colleges forget that they are not the bosses of the students, but the employees. They have been hired by the student to provide a service. If they refuse to provide the service, perhaps the student should sue them and their school.
†— and then simply refuse to teach classes where students don’t assent.â€
So make each professor a sign for their door that says
“Guns are banned in this classroom. No one here has a gun. Since we can’t defend ourselves, kindly go murder people somewhere else.”
Should make for a lot of fun.
Sorry, no civil rights in this classroom.
So much for inclusiveness, open-mindedness, and diversity that they praise so much. Not!
How about this…the administration should tell them that they had better teach the class or be fired.
What if the teacher had said, no “Christian values” allowed in this classroom or I won’t teach. No, they like that one and the administration would back them.
How about, no “muslims or hajibs” in the classroom or I won’t teach. Wow, those are sacred cows so no way that would fly.
So wait.
The people who are *attending tertiary education* are only interested in sex and booze? An interesting way to insult America’s college students.
Besides, what does sex and booze even have to do with this issue?
If there was a college course entitled “Guns, Sex and Booze” it would be the highest rated class on campus.
A big part of the problem is that the ability to teach is a very minor part of being granted tenure. Most of it is research and publication – if you don’t get enough published, you don’t get tenure – and the remainder is departmental politics – if a higher up just doesn’t like you, or your research or theories conflict with theirs, you don’t get tenure. Any evaluation of teaching ability is nothing more than a symbolic effort to satisfy any parents or contributors (or state-level politicians) who bother to look.
A philosophy professor who was one of the best teachers I’ve ever had fell victim to this. He didn’t publish enough to satisfy the department heads, so he was denied tenure and gone the next year.
Most tenure-track faculty view teaching as a necessary inconvenience that gets in the way of their research – except for grad students, who they see as essentially nothing more than free slave-labour.
When an institution treats teaching as an inconvenience, it’s no wonder there very few decent tenured professors, and that we get the “quality” of graduate that we’re seeing today.
These professors are idiots. How is this any different than saying they won’t teach until every student is wearing pink shoes or leather pants? If the student is not breaking the law or causing a disturbance, what argument do they really have? If the firearm is concealed, they will never know. Are they going to pat down students at the beginning of each class? I really want to see this play out.
“some professors there have said they plan to include a clause in syllabi stipulating that students are not be permitted to carry Korans into their classroom — and then simply refuse to teach classes where students don’t assent.”
“some professors there have said they plan to include a clause in syllabi stipulating that students are not be permitted to hold hands with members of the same gender in their classroom — and then simply refuse to teach classes where students don’t assent.”
Oh, the word substitution game is so fun.
I suppose both of those would violate UT’s non-discrimination policy though (http://registrar.utexas.edu/catalogs/gi09-10/app/gi09.appi.html), which protects judgements based on: “race, color, religion, national origin, age, disability, citizenship, veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression.”
How about a classroom policy based on partisan affiliation (No card-carrying Republicans/Democrats/Know Nothings need enter), refusal to submit to a full-body cavity search at the door, or so on? None of those are protected under the university’s discrimination or privacy policies.
Actually it is somewhat different than pink shoes and leather pants. It is more like pink underwear.
Some of you paint with a rather broad brush. Must be convenient. Just close your eyes and stroke away … I suspect some of that paint will end up where it needs to be.
Professors have some, but not much, control of what happens in the classroom. Ultimately, the university has control. Take cell phones and PDAs. Some professors ask that students not use them during class (which is a reasonable request). Few, however, ask that students not bring them to class. Why not? Because you can’t really regulate that behavior. You can’t refuse to do your job because a student is acting lawfully (though disrespectfully). Likewise, with firearms … if the university has no authority to ban them, then the professor surely doesn’t either. To state that I won’t teach a class if a student (lawfully) brings a gun … well, that’s a bit of grandstanding. That professor will back down when the rubber meets the road … and if he/she doesn’t, then they will probably be asked to resign.
It’s a bit rude to carry a gun openly into a classroom–disruptive to learning in the same way that a showing up for class wearing only a Speedo or a bikini would be. But if I don’t know that you are armed, it isn’t disruptive.
On the other hand, my wife has had belt-fed machine guns set up in her classroom before to discuss World War I poetry. It makes for an interesting reaction from the students.
Concerning publications: at the community college level, this does not matter at all. I am pretty sure my publication history exceeded the rest of the department combined, but I could not get a full-time teaching job there. This last semester I had the highest student evaluations in the department–but it was uncertain whether I would get classes to teach in the fall.
I hope Rick Perry ambushes the teachers on this one – a golden opportunity to fire a bunch of tenured hacks, and getting to slash their pensions and medical will help with the state budget.