Here is a letter from my friends at the AMCHA Initiative sent to UC President Janet Napolitano regarding the efforts of the UC Student Workers Union to support the boycott-divest and sanctions movement against Israel and "educate" students about the Palestinian cause.
http://us2.campaign-archive2.com/?u=0beb330b057061522bbe22a7f&id=d4c65a6008&e=b6eadb6292
“We have a responsibility as educators to both learn about and teach the social issues of our time, including pressing global struggles such as the struggle of the Palestinian people for liberation from settler-colonialism and apartheid.”
Really?
And this union is under the umbrella of the United Auto Workers? What's that all about?
It is clear that what is happening is just another effort by academics not to educate, but to indoctrinate students on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. This is hardly what I call professional. For example, my responsibility as an adjunct teacher (educator) at UC Irvine is to teach my students English not tell them what they are supposed to think about the world. My personal opinions never enter my classroom.
Sad to say, however, I would be shocked if Janet Napolitano does anything positive about this complaint.
1 comment:
To keep this simple, the statement of responsibility as educators assumes as axiomatic premises not established by clear and convincing evidence. Thus, the authors of the resolution have proven themselves incompetent to teach. They do have some learning to do.
They can and should teach what each and every party to the conflict says about themselves, and each other.
Isn't this just like the abolition of slavery, the civil rights movement, women's liberation, gay rights, etc. etc. etc.?
In a word, no. Each of these causes can rise or fall on their own merits, not by wrapping themselves in each other's mantles. And just try to tell Hamas that they have the same historical integrity as gay rights.
(I'm still intrigued by how sympathetic to gay rights conservatives have become since the executioners have been Muslim lately, rather than Christian. Heck, I'm still bemused to see conservatives saying nice things about Jews.)
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