Tuesday, January 21, 2003

Somebody's feeling the heat at UCSD 

The San Diego Union Tribune reports about the formation of noindoctrination.org. The article includes this bit of wisdom from Provost David Jordan at UC San Diego:
"Why should I teach a point of view I don't agree with? I should teach what is useful to the student. I don't know that I have the responsibility to teach somebody's view that is benighted or irrelevant."
There's nothing in the article that indicates the quote is out of context, and if so it's staggering. How is that one knows some view is "benighted or irrelevant"? And it's done in a very insidious manner. The student, Kyle Wright, whose mother started noindoctrination.org replied,
"It wasn't anything like 'We're this way and we want you to think this way.' It was more like getting students to think one way by hiding the other side or making it seem ridiculous."
There is an interesting bit at the end where a professor has created a box on the floor of his classroom in which he stands when he's expressing an opinion. "The fine line between fact and opinion is not always clear. It's always something I'm worried about." Such small matters don't appear to bother Provost Jordan.

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