[Richard]

Originally Posted by Paslode

If I am paying my young adults education I would not pay for a class taught by a terrorist and if I we were in the process looking for schools to attend come Fall I would cross Columbia off the list.


I do work for a History Professor from time to time that comes from a well known establishment. He is a likeable chap, who among other things mocks Capitalism, his basement is a treasure trove of Communist/Marxists/Socialist literature, he praises Che and Mao, and he lives for the day Dick Cheney bites it.

He also hates Christianity, and enjoys turning his classes on the openly Christian students in the class and rejoices when said students are brought to tears.

The kids love him too and he gets high marks on Rate My Professor! And someone like Yoshioka thinks he is suitable in a classroom as well.

Hunh.

You're implying we should not allow our adult children exposure to anything beyond that of which we personally approve, we should not allow them to determine for themselves what to accept or reject when confronted with someone like the professor you describe (if the description is accurate) or Professor Boudin, we should not allow them to learn how to defend a position or personally held belief when confronted with a strong counter-argument, we should not allow them to be taught by someone who we don’t personally approve of for fear they might get the “wrong” idea(s), we should not trust them to experience life in its many forms and grow to be productively free-thinking adults in a society such as ours which demands such of its citizenry, we should not allow them to attend an internationally recognized university because there may be a professor somewhere on the faculty who might encourage them to accept ideas we find disagreeable and don't trust them to choose courses from other professors, and so forth.

I know you will find this shocking, but I disagree…and strongly suspect my sons would, too, but, as adults, it would be their choice to accept or reject such thinking, either ‘in toto’ or in part.

One of the best professors I had was a rabbi who taught a course on the History of the Zionist Movement at Indiana University. He was a strong admirer of and advocate for socialism as practiced in Sweden, and found fault with many of America’s social institutions and laws. He and I disagreed on many things, but he was an excellent and demanding teacher, and the class remains one of the 10 best I had during my college experiences over several decades.

Personally, I would be curious to hear what Professor Boudin has to say about the NY prison and parole systems and their impact on families as an SME based upon her years of study and experience both in and outside the prison system. I would also like to spend a semester with Noam Chomsky (MIT), Stan McChrystal (Yale), and Angela Davis (UC Santa Cruz) to hear their thinking as SMEs in their recognized areas of expertise.

However, YMMV – and so it goes…

Richard :munchin